Lesson 1: A brief

overview of
Academic
Writing
L E C T U R E R : D R . A N H T. TO N - N U ,
PHD IN LINGUISTICS (MACQUARIE
U N I V E R S I T Y, A U S T R A L I A )
Overview of the course:
- Core Materials:

[1] Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. (2006). Writing Academic English (4th ed.). Harlow: Pearson Longman.
[2] Bailey, S. (2011). Academic writing: a handbook for international students. London: Routledge.
- Assessment:

1. Class Attendance and Class Participation: 20%

2. Mid-term Test: 20% - Form: paragraph writing

3. Final Exam: 60% - Form: essay writing

 - Introduction to Academic Writing: Academic
Lesson 1 vs Non-academic style

Outline: - Chapter 1: Paragraph Structure

- Chapter 2: Unity - Cohesion
Self-reflection questions:
1. What types of writers are you?
◦ 1 – A well-planned writer;
◦ 2 – A perfectionist writer;
◦ 3 – A clumsy writer’
◦ 4 - Others

2. How long does it often take you to edit a page of your

writing?
3. When editing your writing, do you pay more attention to
restructuring your sentences or polishing your word use?
4. When editing your writing, what tools do you often use to
better your word choices?
Problem-solving
exercise:
1. As the students have various linguistic and
cultural backgrounds, the explanations of
pragmalinguistic features of the English
language were quite challenging and thus
required the teachers to have comparative
knowledge the English language and the
students’ L1 background given the paramount
importance of pragmalinguistic knowledge in
the student’ development of intercultural
pragmatic competence.
Problem-solving
exercise:
2. How to facilitate learners to
develop all of these three
components is obviously a
major pedagogic concern of
English teachers.
Problem-solving
exercise:
3. The results reveal that the
participating teachers were not taught
nor trained about L2 pragmatics and its
teaching during both their general and
professional education. This leads to
their general neglect of this crucial
domain in their English teaching
practices.
Problem-solving
exercise:
1. As the students have various linguistic and cultural
backgrounds, the explanations of pragmalinguistic features of the
English language were quite challenging and thus required the
teachers to have comparative knowledge the English language and
the students’ L1 background given the paramount importance of
pragmalinguistic knowledge in the student’ development of
intercultural pragmatic competence.

→ However, due to the learners’ various linguistic and cultural

backgrounds, the explanation of pragmalinguistic features of
the English language could be challenging. This is because it
requires teachers to have comparative knowledge of the
English language and the students’ L1 backgrounds.
Problem-solving
exercise:
2. How to facilitate learners to develop all of these three
components is obviously a major pedagogic concern of English
teachers.

→ However, a major concern of English language

teachers revolves around the question as to how they
can facilitate learners to develop these three
components.
Problem-solving
exercise:
3. The results reveal that the participating teachers were not
taught nor trained about L2 pragmatics and its teaching during
both their general and professional education. This leads to
their general neglect of this crucial domain in their English
teaching practices.

→ The results reveal that the participating teachers

generally neglected addressing pragmatics in their
teaching and reported not being taught nor trained
about L2 pragmatics and how to teach it during their
teacher education.
General advice for sentence structuring in
academic writing:
Using compact-writing style:
- Clarity in meaning of each sentence
- Effectiveness for readers’ cognitive load: considering of sentence
length

Not over 32
One idea/sentence
words/sentence
General advice for word using in academic
writing
Using the right words in both meanings and stylistics to
communicate your ideas:
formal words
Formal words

Recheck [Cambridge dictionary

Check [thesaurus.com] for
or the like] for the usage &
synonyms
meaning of each word
General advice for word using in academic
writing (cont’d)
Informal Formal words
words
check verify: A robotic teacher could easily verify whether the student’s work is original.

help assist: Human teachers could assist students in developing their interpersonal skills
more effectively.
tell inform: While a robotic teacher could only inform students of facts, a human teacher
is able to do more than that.
lack insufficiency: While insufficiency of knowledge may be experienced by human
teachers, robotic ones could be very versatile in terms of their width of knowledge.
explain elucidate: A robotic teacher may not be able to elucidate complex and impromptu
questions students may have in class.
Tips for sentence structuring: 3 basic
principles for organizing information
Bearing in mind grammatical
rules in writing sentences in
English:
1.The end-weight rule
2.The topic/comment rule
3.The old – new information rule
 Tips for sentence structuring: 3 basic
principles for organizing information (cont’d)
E.g. Extract from Ian Parmenter’s Consuming Passions:
Most of us are passionate about good food and when it
comes to good food Australia is certainly the place to be.
With our climate and soil types we are able to produce
the widest possible range of foods and beverages. Our
meats, fish and seafoods, fruit and vegetables, cereals,
herbs and spices, wine and beer, even tea and coffee are
of a quality to rival the world’s best.
(The chaining effect of the topic-comment arrangement
gives discourse coherence)
 Tips for sentence structuring:
Reporting on previous research

1. Central reporting: ‘Burke (1986) discovered that many

students would like to become integrated into Australian
society.’
2. Non-central reporting: ‘It has been shown that students have
often performed successfully in their own education system
before they seek entry to the particular university (Ballard,
1991)
3. Non-reporting: ‘Instead of motivation producing
achievement, it may be that achievement produces
motivation (Spolsky, 1989).’
When to background and foreground an author or authors?
 Tips for word using: Reporting verbs

1. Verbs which make a statement: report, point out, say,

describe, state, identify, add, assert, present
2. Verbs which express a writer’s personal judgement:
explain, believe, think, maintain, support
3. Verbs which express a writer’s opinion: argue, indicate,
claim, affirm, maintain, observe
4. Verbs which present a writer’s suggestion: propose,
recommend, suggest, urge
5. Verbs which express some kind of disagreement: doubt,
agree, dismiss, disagree, question
Tips for word using: Commenting
on previous research
Tips for sentence structuring:
Paraphrasing
 Practice: Revise the below abstract
Despite the increasing attention to the domain of pragmatics and its well-established status in second
language (henceforth L2) teaching research during at least the last three decades, it remains an ‘unfamiliar’
topic, and thus is often separated and even excluded in the teaching practices of English as a foreign
language (henceforth EFL) worldwide. Adopting a qualitative case study design, this paper investigates how
five EFL teachers, coming from different high schools in Vietnam, perceive the pragmatics of English and
integrate it into their classroom practices. The results reveal that the participating teachers were not taught
nor trained about L2 pragmatics and its teaching during both their general and professional education. This
leads to their general neglect of this crucial domain in their English teaching practices. The uncovered
stories from the teachers in this study provide essential implications for both teacher education programs
and English teaching curricula in Vietnam and its similar contexts. Importantly, the findings unveil specific
areas of L2 pragmatic competence that future professional development activities could address to enhance
teachers’ subject-matter and pedagogical-content knowledge for L2 pragmatics teaching.
 Practice: Revise the below abstract
(cont’d)
Despite increasing attention to the domain of pragmatics and its well-established status in second language (henceforth L2)
teaching research, pragmatics remains an ‘unfamiliar’ topic, and thus is often separated and even excluded in the teaching of
English as a foreign language (henceforth EFL). Adopting a qualitative case study design, this paper investigates how five EFL
teachers, coming from different high schools in Vietnam, perceive the pragmatics of English and integrate it into their
classroom practices. Data was collected via questionnaire and in-depth interview. The results reveal that the participating
teachers generally neglected addressing pragmatics in their teaching and reported not being taught nor trained about L2
pragmatics and how to teach it during their teacher education. The uncovered stories from the teachers in this study provide
essential implications for both teacher education programs and English teaching curricula in Vietnam and its similar contexts.
Importantly, the findings unveil specific areas of L2 pragmatic competence that future professional development activities
could address to enhance teachers’ subject-matter and pedagogical-content knowledge for L2 pragmatics teaching.
 Paltridge, B., & Starfield, S. (2019). Thesis and
dissertation writing in a second language: A
References: handbook for students and their supervisors.
Routledge.
Closing
quotation:
“However great a
man’ natural talent can
be, the act of writing
cannot be learned all
at once.” (Jean-
Jacques Rousseau)