Academic Writing

English Language and Linguistics (ELAL)

Session 2: Academic Style

Introduction

Academic writers need to make sure that they write in an appropriate style. The style must
not only be consistent but must also be proper for the message being conveyed and for the
audience.

One difficulty in using the appropriate style is knowing what is considered academic and
what is not. Academic style is not used in all academic settings. Lectures are generally
delivered in a relatively non-academic style. It is not uncommon to hear lecturers use words
and phrases such as stuff, things, bunch, or a whole lot of, which would not be appropriate
for an academic writing task.

This session looks at some of the features that distinguish spoken English or informal written
English from the formal written English that you need in writing your assignments, essays or
dissertations.

1. Get the right verb

English often has two (or more) choices to express an action or occurrence. The choice is
often between a phrasal (verb + preposition) and a single verb. Often in lectures and other
instances of everyday spoken English, the verb + preposition is used; however, for written
academic style, the preferred choice is a single verb wherever possible.

Examples

Computer software can help out the researcher in the analysis of problems. (Informal style)
Computer software can assist the researcher in the analysis of problems. (Academic style)

Research expenditure has gone up to nearly $350 million. (Informal style)

Research expenditure has increased to nearly $350 million. (Academic style)

Task 1
Choose a verb from the list that reduces the informality of each sentence. Notice that you
may need to add tense or change the form of the verb from the list.

create eliminate
establish intervene
investigate propose
raise reduce

1. Researchers have been looking into the problem for 15 years now. _______________

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2. This issue was brought up during the investigations. _______________
3. The teacher acts as a 'facilitator', and only will step in if something goes wrong.
______________
4. Realistically, examination boards cannot altogether get rid of the possibility of errors
arising during testing. _______________
5. A poor classroom environment can cut down students' ability to learn.
_______________
6. It is very difficult to find out exactly how consultants help facilitate the introduction of
change. _______________
7. After several years of trying, the head teacher decided to come up with a comprehensive
information programme to improve the quality of decisions and planning at the school.
_______________

Task 2
Can you suggest more formal verbs to replace highlighted verbs in the following?

1. The implementation of computer assisted learning has brought about some

improvements in language teaching _______________
2. Proposals to change the curriculum have met with great resistance from teachers.
_______________
3. Plans are being made to come up with a database containing as many samples of authentic
language as possible. _______________
4. As policies are being developed to improve English language teaching, ways of
protecting local languages should also be thought about.
5. Richards (1999) found out that most teachers prefer group work only when teaching
speaking.

2. Avoid idiomatic language

English often has a number of ways of expressing ideas, some of which are more acceptable
than others in academic writing. A common problem is that international students select
expressions that are idiomatic, and more appropriate for speech, rather than equivalent
expressions appropriate for academic writing.

Task 3
Which of the words in italics would be more suitable for an academic paper?

1. The government has made considerable/good progress in solving educational problems.

2. We got/ obtained unexpected results.
3. The results of a lot of/numerous different projects have been pretty good/encouraging.
4. A loss of jobs is one of the consequences/the things that will happen if more computers
are used for distance learning.

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5. Therefore, the relationship between teachers and parents is extremely/really
important.

Task 4
Improve the following sentences by supplying a more academic word/phrase where
necessary.

1. The reaction of the head teacher was sort of negative.

2. Feedback from the students was nice.
3. The future of government funding for schools is up in the air.
4. The two colleges are planning to get together on some of their postgraduate courses.
5. Within any country, political and economic systems have a big impact on the way
education is conducted.
6. The resulting high competition between university departments is good.
7. Behaviour in the classroom is affected by things that happen outside it.

3. Use nominalisations

Nominalisation allows us to represent one event as causing another event in a single

clause. For example, we might write:

The chances of failure are much reduced because of students' knowledge of grammatical
rules.
as
The reduction in the chances of failure is the result of students' knowledge of grammatical
rules.

The device of writing about an event or process (with a verb) as a "thing" (as a noun) is
common in academic writing. Here we are considering it in the context of cause-effect
sentences.

Task 5
Rewrite the following using nouns as in the example above.

1. Communicative language teaching was introduced. This resulted in greater efficiency in

teaching spoken language.
2. If students are given independence in learning, this can lead to improved outcomes.
3. Three schools in the Prefecture cooperated. This led to a new project being set up.
4. New courses were created. This resulted in a major expansion in student numbers.

4. Avoid contractions

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Exam results won't improve until more funding is found for education.
Exam results will not improve until more funding is found for education.

Task 6
If necessary, improve the following sentences.

1. Teachers mustn't allow themselves to take on additional administrative work.

2. The introduction of ALTs in Japanese schools wasn’t enough to promote CLT.
3. Teachers shouldn't assume that all students are motivated to learn languages.
4. His response was: "A job's a job; if it doesn't pay enough, it's a lousy job."

5. Use the appropriate (formal) negative forms

not ... any → no

not ... much → little
not ... many → few

The analysis didn't yield any new results. → The analysis yielded no new results.

The government didn't allocate much funding for the programme. → The government
allocated little funding for the programme.

The problem doesn't have many viable solutions. → The problem has few viable solutions.

Task 7
If necessary, make improvements to the following sentences.

1. Not many parents who left school at the age of 14 would want their children to do the
same.
2. In fact, there hasn't been much agreement among scientists, teachers and school heads.
3. If a child doesn’t want to speak with what is to them a ‘foreign accent’, there isn't any
amount of encouragement that will make them do so.
4. A new teacher will need to learn quite a few different tasks.
5. This approach hasn't received a lot of attention over the last few years.

6. Avoid the use of "run on" expressions such as and so forth and etc.

1. The main branches of English for Occupational Purposes are English for Business
Purposes, English for Medical Purposes, etc.
2. English is widely spoken in Singapore, India, Malaysia, etc.
3. Many two syllable nouns in English have stress on the first syllable: parent, engine,
uncle, ...

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7. Avoid addressing the reader as ‘you’

You can see the results in Table 1. → The results can be seen in Table 1.

8. Consider carefully the use of "I" and "we"

The traditional view of the use of "I" in academic writing is that it should be avoided as it
makes writing sound too "subjective". Nowadays, however, an appropriate use of "I" in
academic writing is encouraged. Here are some suggestions of when it is appropriate to use
"I" and "we" in academic writing. In general, you should avoid introducing each judgement
you make with expressions such as "I think", "I believe", "it seems to me", and so on.

‘I’ has three common uses:

1. Use "I" to make it clear to the reader that a judgement is your own and not to be
confused with that of an author whose judgements you may have been reporting or
discussing; or when you want to emphasise where you stand with respect to other
work, for example whether you want to agree, question, reformulate, etc.

e.g. In contrast to Sinclair's study, I only interviewed people under the age of 40.

2. When you want to emphasize your own degree of confidence in the outcome of your
argument.

e.g. Given the unreliability of some of this evidence I think it is impossible to draw any firm
conclusion.

3. When you want to inform the reader about how you propose to proceed or what types
of analysis you are going to do.

e.g. I shall try to demonstrate that...;

I have defined metaphor in relative terms...;
Before describing the study, I shall provide some background to …

‘We’ has two common uses:

1. When you want to report a conclusion that your reading has shown you to be generally
accepted. "We" in this usage includes "I" the writer, "you" the reader and "them", other
scholars, or perhaps people in general (i.e. it means "we all").

e.g. We know that communicative language testing has a positive backwash effect on
teaching.

It is quite clear that how we perceive our students depends very often on their
involvement in the classroom activities.

2. When you as the writer want to guide the reader through what you propose to do or
what you have already done in your writing. In this usage, "we" includes "I" and "you"

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(the reader) but excludes others. It is most frequently used with verbs of observation,
perception and analysis (e.g. see, consider, observe, inspect, assume, analyse, examine,
find):

e.g. When we consider the other major languages in Hong Kong....

If we assume that all children have the capacity for learning a second language...
We have seen...

However, as a general rule it is better to avoid using ‘we’ in academic writing.

TASK 10
Look at these extracts from students' dissertations and comment on the use of ‘I’ and ‘we’
in each case. Is it appropriate?

1. CLT has become more successful, partly because teachers realised that old teaching
methods were not adequate and partly because the Ministry of Education imposed new
textbooks and new requirements in terms of teaching methods. This, I believe, was a major
achievement.

2. There is, we think, an obvious and challenging case for studying learners’ ability to
recognise sounds in English.

3. We adopt the definition of “communicative” given by Brown.

4. My intention is, firstly, to examine the impact of Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) in my
school on the amount of spoken interaction in the classroom. Secondly, I will assess...

5. When we look at the excellent teaching outcomes, we notice that they result from
combined efforts of ... If we want this trend to continue, we must treat ALTs as our most
important asset.

Notice also that you should avoid referring to yourself as ‘the author’:

From a dissertation abstract; here ‘the author’ = the student:

In the final part of the paper, the author looks at the implications of the transplantation of
CLT to Japan.
In the final part of the paper, the implications of the transplantation of CLT to Japan are
considered.

9. Limit the use of direct questions

What can be done to improve listening skills in our students?

The ways of improving (our) students’ listening skills need to be considered.

Task 11
Suggest improvements to the following texts where necessary.

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1. Can we identify whether there is a relationship between the language learning ability of
a child and parental employment?
2. What are the five major aims of the curriculum change?
3. Why do some private language schools develop and thrive while others stagnate?
10.Avoid redundancy

Redundancy is where you use more words than necessary to express the required meaning,
e.g.:

There are desirable benefits to be gained from increasing research into second language
acquisition.

Benefits are desirable things, so ‘desirable’ is redundant.

TASK 12
Pick out any words or phrases that are redundant in these sentences and rewrite where
necessary.

1. An attempt will be made to try to achieve an understanding of the source of errors in

the students’ writing.
2. The subject of the discussion is about the role of government in educational
improvement.
3. Other reasons, too, have also contributed to the development of special education
provision.

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