ACADEMIC WRITING STYLE

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ACADEMIC WRITING STYLE

• Based on S. Bailey (2006) and Swales, Feak (2004)

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What is academic writing?

• Part of academic skills (study skills, key
  skills, core skills, transferable skills, )
• follow-up to basic skills in a higher education
  context
• needed later in professional careers and for LLL

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General features of academic writing

• precise
• formal
• impersonal (but I and We possible)
• objective
• clear
• simple, but not simplistic

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Not really academic ...

• A lot of people think that weather is getting
  worse. They say that this has been going on for
  quite a long time. I think that they are quite
  right. Research has shown that we now get storms
  etc all the time.
• Example taken from Bailey (2006)

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Not really academic ...

• A lot of people think that weather is getting
  worse. They say that this has been going on for
  quite a long time. I think that they are quite
  right. Research has shown that we now get storms
  etc all the time.
• Example taken from Bailey (2006)

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Academic style

• It is widely believed that the climate is
  deteriorating. It is claimed that this process
  has been continuing for nearly 100 years. This
  belief appears to be supported by McKinley (1997)
  who shows a 55 increase in the frequency of
  severe winter gales since 1905.

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Specific features of academic style

• Appropriate vocabulary
• Avoiding direct questions
• Avoiding etc., and so on, but (beginning of
  sentence), you, contracted verbal forms,
• Careful with sentence length
• Use tentative language (cautious style)
• (see the handout)

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Any examples of inappropriate style?

• Lots of people think that the railways are
  getting worse.
• You cant always trust the numbers in that
  report.
• What were the main causes of the American
  Revolution? (in an essay)
• The second thing is that most kids in that
  district will become criminals.
• A few years ago they allowed women to vote.
• The inflation in Russia led to increased poverty,
  illness and so on.
• Serious crime like murder is going up.

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Inappropriate style in academic writing

1. Lots of people think that the railways are
   getting worse.
2. You cant always trust the numbers in that
   report.
3. What were the main causes of the American
   Revolution?
4. The second thing is that most kids in that
   district will become criminals.
5. A few years ago they allowed women to vote.
6. The inflation in Russia led to increased
   poverty, illness and so on.
7. Serious crime like murder is going up.

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Cautious style (tentative language)

• May/might/can
• Tend to
• Often/usually (unless always)
• Fairly/quite/rather
• Tent.verbs think, consider, suggest, believe,
  claim,

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Rewrite the following in a more cautious style

• Private companies are more efficient than
  state-owned businesses.
• His second book had a hostile reception.
• Global warming will cause the sea level to rise.
• Science students work harder than those studying
  humanities.
• Her contribution at the conference was
  insignificant.