Lesson 9:

Communication for Academic Purposes

I. OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
a. write and present an academic paper using appropriate tone, styles, conventions and reference style;
b. employ strategies on how to espouse awareness of audience and context in imploring ideas; and
c. identify the different opportunities in communication through research.

II. CONCEPT NOTES

Despite having a wide range of varieties, English has become the primary international language for research,
publications, and communication in the global arena. Therefore, if university students wish to succeed in their academic
activities and careers in the near future, they must have a strong command of the receptive form of the language.

Although academic writing is performed in the context of the academic field, it implies that everyone, whether
they are an academician, a professional in a variety of fields, or a student, is included in the purview of the said setting.
Academicians use it as their compass while writing research papers, and professionals from a variety of fields use it to
help them prepare their scripts, dialogue, and presentations before speaking in front of their peers at meetings. Students
benefit from presenting their research in a consistent and structured way.

Academic writing is more formal than other forms of writing. It adheres to a set of standards, rules, styles, and
conventions that disseminate knowledge among readers and provide them with amusement and persuasion opportunities.

A student will benefit greatly from academic writing. He or she will be able to grow in analytical thinking, and it
will educate them how to concisely and clearly express complex thoughts.

To learn more about communication for academic purposes, read and write the following concepts in your
notebook.

Construction of Good Academic Write-ups

Paragraph Structure
 A paragraph is a group of connected and related sentences that discuss one (and usually only one) main idea. A
paragraph can be one sentence to ten sentences. How long or short a paragraph is unimportant; nevertheless, the
paragraph should be long enough to develop a main idea clearly.
 A paragraph may stand by itself. Academic writing is about how to write a paragraph to answer a test question,
such as, “Define management by objective, and give one example of it from the reading you have done for this
class.”
 A paragraph may also be one part of a longer piece of writing such as an essay or a book.
Writing Technique Questions
1. What is the topic of the paragraph?
2. What two main points does the writer make about the topic?
3. In which two sentences does the writer say that there are two main points?
4. What examples does the writer use to support each other?

The Three Parts of Paragraph

 All paragraphs have a topic sentence and supporting sentences, and some paragraphs also have concluding
sentences.
 The topic sentence expresses the main idea of the paragraph. It does not only provide the topic of the paragraph, it
also limits the topic to one specific area that can be discussed completely in the space of a single paragraph.
 Always keep in mind that a topic sentence is a complete sentence and is neither too general nor too specific.

Examples:
Too specific - Love is self-seeking.
Too general - Love is interpreted by many in different ways.
Best Topic Sentence - People hold many definitions about love.
Incomplete - Is field with color red.

Writing Topic Sentences

In writing a topic sentence, remember these three points:
1. A topic sentence should be a complete sentence, with a subject and a verb.
2. A topic sentence should be neither too general nor too specific. If it is too general, the reader cannot tell exactly what
the paragraph is going to discuss.
3. A topic sentence should not have unrelated controlling ideas.

 Supporting sentences develop the topic sentence. That is, they explain or prove the topic sentence by giving
information about it. One of the biggest problems of students in writing is that they often fail to support their ideas
adequately. They need to use specific details: examples, statistics, and quotations.
 The concluding sentence gives a hint at the end of the paragraph and leaves the reader with important points to
remember. It is customary for stand-alone paragraphs. However, paragraphs that are parts of a longer piece of
writing do not need concluding sentences. For single paragraphs, especially long ones, a concluding sentence is
very helpful.

A concluding sentence serves two purposes:

1. It signals the end of the paragraph.
2. It leaves the reader with the most important ideas to remember.
 By summarizing the main points of the paragraph; or
 By repeating the topic sentence in different words.

 A paragraph does not always need concluding sentences. For single paragraphs especially long ones, a concluding
sentence is helpful to the reader because it is a reminder of the important points. Also put in mind that, a concluding
sentence is not needed for every paragraph in a multi-paragraph essay.
 You may want to begin your concluding sentence with one of the signals in the list below. You may also end a
paragraph without a formal signal or perhaps by using an expression like those in the column on the right.

End-of-Paragraph: Signals Followed by a Comma

Finally, Lastly,
In brief, Therefore,
In conclusion, Thus,
In short, To sum up,
End-of-Paragraph: Signals Not Followed by a Comma
 The evidence suggests that…
 There can be no doubt that…
 These examples show that…
 We can see that…

Unity and Coherence

 An important aspect of Academic write-ups is that it can be understood a message by the readers with easiness and
smoothness; this may be achieved by unity and coherence in a paragraph. Unity is a concept of grouping different
ideas into a harmonic whole write-up.
 Another element of a good paragraph is coherence. The Latin verb cohere means “hold together.” For coherence in
writing, the sentences must hold together; that is, the movement from one sentence to the next must be logical and
smooth. There must be no sudden jumps. Each sentence should flow smoothly into the next one.

Oshima & Hogue enumerated the four ways to achieve coherence:

1. Repeat key nouns
2. Use consistent pronouns
3. Use transition signals to link ideas
4. Arrange your ideas in logical manner

Transition signals
 These are expressions, such as first, finally, and however, or phrases such as in conclusion, on the other hand, and
 as a result. Other kinds of words such as subordinators (when, although), coordinators (and, but), adjectives
(another, additional), and prepositional (because of, in spite of) can serve as transition signals.
 Transition signals are like traffic signs; they tell your reader when you are giving similar idea (similarly, and, in
addition), an opposite idea (on the other hand, but, in contrast), an example (for example), as a result (therefore, as
a result), or a conclusion (in conclusion).
 Transition signals give paragraph coherence because they guide your reader from one idea the next.

Transition Words.
 Transitions are phrases or words used to connect one idea to the next; used by the author to help the reader progress
from one significant idea to the next. It also shows the relationship within a paragraph (or within a sentence)
between the main idea and the support the author gives for those ideas different transitions do different things.

Additive Transitions
• Addition
• Introduction
• Reference
• Similarity
• Identification

Adversative Transitions
• Conflict
• Emphasis
• Concession
• Dismissal

Replacement Causal (not casual) Transitions

• Cause/Reason
• Effect/Result
• Purpose
Consequence Sequential Transitions
• Numerical
• Continuation
• Conclusion
• Digression
• Resumption
• Summation

Additive Transitions. These show addition, introduction, and similarity to other ideas.
Addition
Indeed Also And Or Too
Nor further Moreover furthermore In fact
alternatively What is more In addition actually Much less
On the other Either (neither) As a matter of besides Additionally
hand fact
Not to mention Not only but
also

Introduction
Such as For example As, particularly Including As an
illustration
Like In particular For one thing To illustrate For instance
Specially Notably By way of
example
 Reference
Speaking about Concerning Regarding The fact that
As for On the subject of Considering With regard to

Similarity
Similarly In the same way By the same token In a like manner Equally, likewise

Identification
That is Namely Specifically Thus

Adversative Transitions. These transitions are used to signal conflict, contradiction concession, dismissal.
Conflict
But however In contrast By way of While
contrast
Yet When in fact Whereas Conversely Though, Still

Emphasis
Even more Above all Indeed More importantly Besides

Concession
But even so However Nevertheless Nonetheless
Despite this On the other hand Admittedly Even though

Replacement
At least Rather Instead

Causal Transitions. These transitions signal cause/effect and reason/result.

Cause/Reason
For the reason Being that For In view of
Because Seeing as As Owing to
Due to the fact that In that For as much as

Condition
On the condition that Granted that If Provided that
In case In the event that Providing that As/so long as
Unless Given that Only if Unless

Result/Effect-
As a result Consequently Hence For this reason
Thus Because of this In consequence So that
Accordingly So much so that So Therefore

Purpose
For the purpose With this With this in mind In the hope that
of intention
 To the end that In order that For fear that So as to
Unless Given that In order to So that

Consequence - something that happens as a result of a particular action or set of conditions.

Under those then In that case If not
circumstances
That being the case If so Otherwise

Sequential Transitions. These transitions are used to signal a chronological or logical sequence.
Numerical - of or relating to numbers or a system of numbers.
In the (first, initially To start with First of all
second, etc.
To begin with At first For a start Secondly

Continuation- something that starts where something else ends and adds to or continues the first part.
Subsequently Afterwards Eventually Next
Before this Previously After (this) Then

Conclusion – suggests the act of concluding or finishing something or state if being finished
To conclude In the end At last Lastly
As a final point Eventually Finally

Digression – the act or an instance of leaving the main subject in an extended written or verbal expression of thought
To change the Incidentally By the way
topic

Resumption – an act of starting something again after it has stopped.

To get back to Anyhow Anyway First of all
the point
To return to the subject To resume At any rate At any rate

Summation - suggests brief description of the most important information about something,
As was previously stated So In summary All in all
Briefly Consequently To sum up Overall
Thus As I have said Given these points In all
On the whole Therefore As has been noted Hence
In conclusion Hence In a word To put it briefly