Academic writing style

Academic writing style

Here are a few general points to remember when you are writing your

assignments. As well as using appropriate language and aiming for a high level of accuracy in your grammar and vocabulary, you should also remember that you're writing for someone else, and hence the importance of punctuation, sentences, paragraphs and overall structure, all of which help the reader.

AVOID SOME ASPECTS OF INFORMAL ENGLISH

1. Don't (do not!) use contractions (e.g. it's, he'll, it'detc.): always use the full form (it is/has, he will, it would/had).

2. Don't use colloquial language or slang (e.g. kid, a lot of/lots of, cool); always write as concisely as you can, with no irrelevant material or “waffle”. 3. Generally avoid \instead, use one word equivalents.

4. Avoid common but vague words and phrases such as ?get?, ?nice?, ?thing?. Your writing needs to be precise.

5. Avoid overuse of brackets; don?t use exclamation marks or dashes; avoid direct questions; don?t use “etc.” or “so on”.

6. Always use capital letters appropriately.

STRUCTURE YOUR WRITING CAREFULLY

1. Make sure you write in complete sentences. 2. Divide your writing up into paragraphs.

3. Use connecting words and phrases to make your writing explicit and easy to follow.

4. Check your grammar and spelling carefully.

MAKE YOUR WRITING FORMAL AND IMPERSONAL

1. Avoid too much personal language (I, my, we etc.). Some tutors prefer you to avoid it completely. Never use emotive language; be objective rather than subjective.

2. Avoid being too dogmatic and making sweeping generalisations. It is usually best to use some sort of “hedging” language (see below) and to qualify statements that you make.

3. You should consistently use evidence from your source reading to back up what you are saying and reference this correctly.

4. Use nominalisation; that is, try to write noun-based phrases rather that verb-based ones.

For example, instead of

Crime was increasing rapidly and the police were becoming concerned. write:

The rapid increase in crime was causing concern among the police.

CAUTIOUS/TENTATIVE LANGUAGE

In order to put some distance between what you?re writing and yourself as writer, to be cautious rather than assertive, you should:

1. Avoid overuse of first person pronouns (I, we, my, our)

2. Use impersonal subjects instead (It is believed that ..., it can be argued that ...).

3. Use passive verbs to avoid stating the ?doer? (Tests have been conducted). 4. Use verbs (often with it as subject) such as imagine, suggest, claim, suppose 5. Use ?attitudinal signals? such as apparently, arguably, ideally, unexpectedly. These words allow you to hint at your attitude to something without using personal language.

6. Use verbs such as would, could, may, might which ?soften? what you?re saying. 7. Use qualifying adverbs such as some, several, a minority of, a few, many to avoid making overgeneralisations. Exercises

Exercise 1

Replace the phrasal verbs in the sentences with a more appropriate verb from the list below. Don't forget to keep the same tense.

fluctuate investigate eliminate propose intervene raise reduce establish

1. Researchers have been looking into the problem for 15 years. 2. This issue was brought up during the seminar. 3. It is assumed that the management knows what is happening and will therefore step in if there is a problem. 4. Schools cannot altogether get rid of the problem of truancy. 5. The number of staff has been cut down recently. 6. It was very difficult to find out exactly what happened. 7. House prices have a tendency to go up and down. 8. A potential solution was put forward two years ago. Exercise 2

Replace the following phrasal verbs with a more formal single word. 1. The locals could not put up with the visitors from the city. 2. The decline was brought about by cheap imports. 3. The university is thinking about installing CCTV. 4. Sales are likely to drop off in the third quarter. 5. He went on speaking for over an hour. 6. The meeting was put off until December. 7. The cinema was pulled down ten years ago.

8. People have cut down on their consumption of beef.

Exercise 3

Which of the two alternatives in bold do you think is more appropriate in academic writing?

1. The government has made considerable/great progress in solving the problem. 2. We got/obtained excellent results in the experiment.

3. The results of lots of/numerous tests have been pretty good/encouraging. 4. A loss of jobs is one of the consequences/things that will happen if the process is

automated.

5. The relationship between the management and workers is extremely/really important.

6. Some suggestions springing up from/arising from the study will be presented.

Exercise 4

Replace the contractions in the following sentences with full forms where necessary.

1. The results weren't very encouraging. _________________________ 2. We'll have to conduct another experiment. _____________________ 3. She's been all around the world. _________________________ 4.It's the best solution to the problem. ______________________

Exercise 5

Suggest improvements to the following sentences to avoid use of “you” and “we”. 1. You can apply the same theory of learning to small children.

2. You can only do this after the initial preparation has been conducted. 3. The figures are accurate to within 1%, but you should note that local variations may apply.

4. In the second section of the report, we will consider the environmental consequences.

Exercise 6

Suggest alternatives to the following to avoid use of personal language. 1. In this essay I will discuss the main differences between the English and Scottish legal systems.

2. I have divided my report into five sections.

3. I will conclude by proposing that all drugs should be legalized.

4. The opinion of the present author in this essay is that the importance of the monarchy should be reduced.

5. In the third part of the essay, we will look at the reasons for public hysteria over the SARS virus

6. Although I am not an expert in the field, I have tried very hard to understand the main ideas.

Exercise 7

Make these statements more tentative.

1. Today everyone uses credit cards for all their shopping. 2. Drinking wine is bad for you.

3. Global warming will have disastrous consequences for the whole world. 4. Teleworking leads to isolation. 5.Men are worse drivers than women.

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