Features of Academic Writing. Introduction

Features of Academic Writing Introduction Academic writing in English is linear, which means it has one central point or theme with every part contrib...
Author: Marilyn Holt
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Features of Academic Writing Introduction Academic writing in English is linear, which means it has one central point or theme with every part contributing to the main line of argument, without digressions or repetitions. Its objective is to inform rather than entertain. As well as this it is in the standard written form of the language. There are eight main features of academic writing that are often discussed. Academic writing is to some extent: complex, formal, objective, explicit, hedged, and responsible. It uses language precisely and accurately.

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Academic Writing Features Quiz Answer Notice that each item identifies some significant features of the academic text kind. Note that each asterisk is replaced by a letter of the text kind name:

Text 1 is the introduction from a novel. Some features are: past tense narrative, introduction to characters Text 2 is from a recipe book. Some features are: list of ingredients, instructions using imperative verbs "Trim, Add, Heat". Text 3 is a list of instructions from a manual for an electric kettle. Some features are: list, bullet pints, instructions using imperative verbs "Fill, Leave, Empty" Text 4 is a business letter. Some features are layout "address, Dear Mr, Yours sincerely" Text 5 is the beginning of a chapter from a textbook. Some features are: chapter headings, clear descriptions, definitions. Text 6 is part of a play. Some features are: dialogue with speakers named, conversational language. Text 7 is the introduction from an academic article. Some features are: objective impersonal language "This paper examines, It is hoped", citations "Sinclair, 1988", nominalisation (nouns, not verbs) "interaction, attribution".

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Text 8 is a poem. Some features are: layout - short lines, rhyme "day, May" Text 9 is an advertisement. Some features are: layout, picture, price, positive adjectives "beautiful, great" Text 10 is an article from a local newspaper. Some features are: layout "columns", headings. Text 11 is a classified accommodation advertisement. Some features are: layout, abbreviations. Text 12 is an informal letter. Some features are: personal language "I, you, we", questions, use of punctuation.

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Academic Writing Style Avoiding informal language - answers 1. With women especially, there is a great deal of social pressure to conform to a certain physical shape. 2. Significantly, even at this late date, Lautrec was considered somewhat conservative by his peers. 3. It focused on a subject that much of the bourgeois and upperclass exhibition-going public regarded as anti-social and antiestablishment. 4. Later Florey collaborated with Paul Fildes in an experimental study of the use of curare to relieve the intractable muscular spasms which occur in fully developed infection with tetanus or lockjaw. 5. When a patient is admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit, the clinical team should avoid the temptation to commence specific treatments immediately. 6. Therefore after six months the dieter is behaving according to all twenty-six goals and she has achieved a considerable reduction in sugar intake. 7. Modern houses have so many labour-saving devices that it is difficult for the person at home to have adequate exercise by doing chores, cooking, and looking after a family. 8. Simply making the effort to reclaim this wasted material for fertilizer would have a positive effect on greenhouse releases. 4

9. It is difficult to imagine exactly what is meant by saying that such a classification is natural as any collection of objects could be classified in this way. 10. Unfortunately, since there are so many possible explanations, the correct one is most difficult to ascertain. 11. These exercises can easily be incorporated into an exercise routine, with each exercise repeated a number of times. 12. Fleming succeeded in isolating a streptococcus from the cerebrospinal fluid of the patient. 13. Effective vaccines prevent such hazards, but only if a social organisation ensures that all potential mothers are vaccinated in good time.

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Academic Writing Style Avoiding abbreviations - answers

1. The radical restructuring of British politics after 1931 lies not in the events of 13-28 August, but in the changing attitudes within the National Government.

2. This is not easy to do since most historians persist in speaking of The National Government as if the same sort of government ruled from 1931 to 1940.

3. The first National Government was not intended to be a coalition government in the normal sense of the term.

4. These are not at all original or exotic but are based on the ordinary things that most people tend to eat.

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Academic Writing Style Avoiding two-word verbs - answers 1. A primary education system was established throughout Ireland as early as 1831 2. This will reduce the amount of drug required and so the cost of treatment. 3. The material amenities of life have increased in Western society. 4. The press reflected the living culture of the people; it could influence opinion and reinforce existing attitudes but it did not create new forms of entertainment. 5. Thus, he should have investigated how the patient has coped previously. 6. The aggregate of outstanding balances fluctuated quite violently. 7. In 1947 the Treasury raised the question of excluding South Africa (and India) from the sterling area. 8. Dieters often feel that they should totally eliminate high-fat and high-sugar foods. 9. Thus when a Gallic bishop in 576 converted the local Jewish community to Christianity, those who refused baptism were expelled from the city.

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10. Western scholars gradually produced a corpus of translations from the Arabic and studies of Islam. 11. Ms Tucker, Lord White's 29-year-old companion, has since retracted her statement. 12. Discussion of the outcome of experiments that have used this method will be postponed until Chapter 7. 13. They did not easily accept or tolerate differences in others. 14. My high-school friend signed up for three years with the army so he could save enough money to go to university and study law. 15. The solitary feeding of insectivores in forests was therefore attributed to a foraging strategy involving the pursuit of cryptic and easily disturbed prey by singletons. 16. In style, the turn toward abstraction and simplification occurred earliest with Anquetin and Bernard and next with van Gogh. 17. For Klein that cloudless day never arrived, but he never relinquished his hope for a just world. 18. Eventually the Irish party was forced to return to Westminster. 19. The court thinks it just and equitable to return the property.

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20. The English liked coal fires even though they do not always produce much heat. 21. The story told by German propaganda, however, betrayed nothing of the mounting hopelessness of the 6th Army's position. 22. These exercises can easily be incorporated into an exercise routine, with each exercise repeated a number of times. 23. Marx took as one of his main tasks the understanding of how this system came into being and this was in order to discover why this system had such power. 24. This was before he had read the guidelines on how to conduct the research. 25. Still, the pressure to succeed as an individual made most women believe that the problems they encountered were probably of their own making.

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Academic writing style – answers Formal Informal appear seem ascend climb assist help cease stop commence begin consume use decrease shorten demonstrate show depart go desire want enquire ask finish end inform tell obtain get preserve keep reject say no release free repair mend require need reside live retain keep Formal Informal finally in the end immediately

at once

initially intermittently principally repeatedly subsequently therefore

at first on and off mainly again and again

next so 11

Formal

Informal

comprehension

understanding

deficiency opportunity perspiration residence vision

lack chance sweat house sight

Formal amiable complete energetic fortunate immature incorrect inferior inexpensive indistinct insane relaxed

Informal friendly whole lively lucky childish wrong worse cheap dim mad laid back

responsible

in charge

sufficient superior transparent vacant

enough better clear empty

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