ENGLISH IN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

TYPES OF
ACADEMIC WRITING
 • What is academic writing?

• Academic writing is writing which

communicates ideas, information
ACADEMIC and research to the wider academic
community.

WRITING • It’s what students are expected to

produce for classes and what
professors and academic
researchers use to write scholarly
materials.
• Academic writing is a formal style
of writing used in universities and
scholarly publications.

• You’ll encounter it in journal articles

and books on academic topics, and
you’ll be expected to write your
essays, research papers and
dissertation in academic style.
Differences between Academic Writing and other
writing

• Writing is a skill that is required in many contexts throughout life. For instance, you
can write an email to a friend or reflect on what happened during the day in your
personal diary.

• In these kinds of interpersonal settings, the aim may be to communicate the events
that have happened in your life to someone close to you, or to yourself.

• It is expected that in writing about these life events, you will include your personal
judgements and evaluations, which may be measured by your feelings and
thoughts.
• There is no need to follow a structure, as prose on the page or the
computer screen appears through freely associated ideas.

• Similarly, another quality of writing in personal contexts is that it is

typically informal, so there is no need to adhere to structures of
punctuation or grammar (although your reader may be quite
appreciative if you do so).

• In these settings, it is perfectly acceptable to deploy colloquialisms,

casual expressions, and abbreviations, like “that’s cool”, “by the
way…”, “b4”, and “thru”.
In contrast, academic writing does many of the things that personal writing does
not.

• Firstly, some kind of structure is required, such as a beginning, middle, and end.
This simple structure is typical of an essay format, as well as other assignment writing
tasks, which may not have a clearly articulated structure.

• A second difference between academic writing and other writing genres is based on
the citation of published authors.
• If you make judgements about something in academic writing, there is an expectation
that you will support your opinion by linking it to what a published author has
previously written about the issue.
• Indeed, citing the work of other authors is central to academic writing because it
shows you have read the literature, understood the ideas, and have integrated these
issues and varying perspectives into the assignment task.
• Thirdly, in academic writing you should always
follow rules of punctuation and grammar.
Punctuation as well as the conventions of grammar
are universally known systems that maintain
clarity and avoid ambiguity in expression.
 ACADEMIC WRITING
• Academic writing is generally quite formal, objective, impersonal, and
technical.

• It is formal by avoiding casual or conversational language, such as

contractions or informal vocabulary.

• It is impersonal and objective by avoiding direct reference to people or

feelings, and instead emphasizing objects, facts and ideas.

• It is technical by using vocabulary specific to the discipline.

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Characteristics of
Academic Writing
• formal tone - A formal tone is always used in academic
writing. It is not lighthearted or conversational in tone. Slang
and clichés do not belong in this type of writing.

• precise language - In keeping with the formal tone, it’s

important to choose precise language that very clearly conveys
the author’s meaning.

• point-of-view (POV) - Academic writing is usually written in

third person point of view because its focus is to educate on
the facts rather than to support an opinion or give advice.

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 • research focus - Because most academic writing involves
reporting research results, it tends to focus on the specific
research question(s) being studied.

• organization - Academic writing should be organized

logically. Use headings to delineate each major section.

• source citations - Most academic writing includes at least

some secondary research sources. Be sure to properly cite all
sources and include a bibliography.

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 FORMAL LANGUAGE
You can make your writing more formal through the vocabulary that you use. For
academic writing:

• choose formal instead of informal vocabulary. For example, ‘somewhat’ is more

formal than ‘a bit’, ‘insufficient’ is more formal than ‘not enough’.

• avoid contractions. For example, use ‘did not’ rather than ‘didn’t’.

• avoid emotional language. For example, instead of strong words such as

‘wonderful’ or ‘terrible’, use more moderate words such as ‘helpful’ or
‘problematic’.

• instead of using absolute positives and negatives, such as ‘proof’ or ‘wrong’, use
more cautious evaluations, such as ‘strong evidence’ or ‘less convincing’.

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 DIFFERENT TYPES OF
ACADEMIC WRITING

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Descriptive writing
• Descriptive writing is one of the simplest and most used academic
writing types.

• The main purpose of descriptive writing is to state facts and inform

the audience.

• Therefore, when you hear these terms in any academic piece —

report, summarize, identify, record, define — know that it is
descriptive academic writing, which is mostly used for school-level
writing and completely theory-based projects.

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 • A lab report that informs the reader about the results of an
experiment is an example of descriptive writing.

• Descriptive writing is also used for describing people, places,

situations, events, etc.

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 Analytical writing
• When you are working on an academic study, you usually do not only use
descriptive writing.

• You must mix and match different types of writing to convey your message to
your target group.

• Therefore, aside from simply informing, you need to also organize your
information in a way that allows your readers to understand the content better.

• Analytical writing includes descriptive writing, but also requires you to re-
organize the facts and information you describe into categories, groups, parts,
types or relationships.
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 • If you’re comparing two theories, you might break your comparison into several
parts.
e.g. how each theory deals with social context, how each theory deals with
language learning, and how each theory can be used in practice.

• Phrases such as ‘’examine,’’ ‘’compare,’’ ‘’relate,’’ ‘’contrast,’’ and ‘’analyze’’ are

the most common words used in analytical writing.

How to get better at analytical writing:

• Spend plenty of time planning. Brainstorm the facts and ideas, and try different
ways of grouping them, according to patterns, parts, similarities and differences.
• Create a name for the relationships and categories you find. For example,
advantages and disadvantages.
• Build each section and paragraph around one of the analytical categories.
• Make the structure of your paper clear to your reader, by using topic sentences and a
clear introduction.
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 Persuasive
o Persuasive writing has all the features of analytical writing (that is, information plus
re-organising the information), with the addition of your own point of view.

o Most essays are persuasive, and there is a persuasive element in at least the
discussion and conclusion of a research article.

o Points of view in academic writing can include an argument, a recommendation,

interpretation of findings or evaluation of the work of others. In persuasive writing,
each claim you make needs to be supported by some evidence, for example a
reference to research findings or published sources.

o The kinds of instructions for a persuasive assignment include: argue, evaluate,

discuss, take a position.
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To help reach your own point of view on the facts or ideas:
• Read some other researchers' points of view on the topic. Who do you feel is the most convincing?
• Look for patterns in the data or references. Where is the evidence strongest?
• List several different interpretations. What are the real-life implications of each one? Which ones are
likely to be most useful or beneficial? Which ones have some problems?
• Discuss the facts and ideas with someone else. Do you agree with their point of view?

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Critical Writing

• Critical writing is common for research, postgraduate and advanced undergraduate writing.

• It has all the features of persuasive writing, with the added feature of at least one other point of
view. While persuasive writing requires you to have your own point of view on an issue or topic,
critical writing requires you to consider at least two points of view, including your own.

• For example, you may explain a researcher's interpretation or argument and then evaluate the merits
of the argument, or give your own alternative interpretation.

• Examples of critical writing assignments include a critique of a journal article, or a literature review
that identifies the strengths and weaknesses of existing research. The kinds of instructions for critical
writing include: 'critique', 'debate', 'disagree' and 'evaluate'.
You need to:
• Accurately summarise all or part of the work. This could include identifying the main interpretations,
assumptions or methodology.
• Have an opinion about the work. Appropriate types of opinion could include pointing out some
problems with it, proposing an alternative approach that would be better, and/or defending the work
against the critiques of others.
• Provide evidence for your point of view. Depending on the specific assignment and the discipline,
different types of evidence may be appropriate, such as logical reasoning, reference to authoritative
sources and/or research data.
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 In many academic texts you will need to use more than one type. For example, in a thesis:
• You will use critical writing in the literature review to show where there is a gap or opportunity
in the existing research
• The methods section will be mostly descriptive to summarise the methods used to collect and
analyse information
• The results section will be mostly descriptive and analytical as you report on the data you
collected
• The discussion section is more analytical, as you relate your findings back to your research
questions, and also persuasive, as you propose your interpretations of the findings.

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FORM OF ACADEMIC WRITING

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thank you