Writing Well Academic Writing Skills

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Writing WellAcademic Writing Skills

• Student Learning Advisory Service

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Academic writing

• Focussed
• Based on research (referenced)
• Structured
• Formal
• Tentative/ cautious
• Impersonal

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Formal

• Avoid colloquial language
• no stuff or things or and so on
• Avoid Latin abbreviation
• e.g. i.e. etc.
• Avoid phrasal verbs
• come up with suggest
• Avoid irony, sarcasm, or humour
• Do not use contractions
• Spell out abbreviations or acronyms at first use
  (unless they are widely understood, e.g. the BBC)

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Formal

• No imperatives/ instructions
• Avoid questions (incl. rhetorical ones)
• Avoid clichés
• in this day and age , knight in shining armour
• Avoid sexist language
• instead use plurals Students and their
• Use of that,
• He believed that the introduction of

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Cautious/ tentative

• Avoid
• should, must or ought to
• gt Instead use
• probably, likely, seems, appears,
• suggests, tend to, could
• http//www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/results.htm
  

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Impersonal

• Do no use I , my , me or we, our, us
• gt instead The researcher encountered
• It is believed that
• The results suggest that
• Do not use you As you can see
• instead It is obvious or
• can be easily identified.

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4 Cs of academic writing

• clear
• concise
• cohesive
• correct

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How to improve

• Observe/ imitate the experts
• Learn the discourse of your discipline
• e.g. speak write like an economist
• - use technical terms competently
• - follow discipline specific conventions

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Exercises

• The following exercises were adapted from Steve
  Goulds exercises produced for the
• The Learner Development Unit of the Birmingham
  City University (2007)
• http//www.ssdd.bcu.ac.uk/learner/Writing20index
  .htm

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Exercise 1 Replace the phrasal verbs in the
sentences with a more appropriate verb.

• 1. Researchers have been looking into the problem
  for 15 years.
• investigating/ analysing
• 2. This issue was brought up during the seminar.
• raised
• 3. It is assumed that the management knows what
  is happening and will therefore step in if there
  is a problem.
• intervene
• 4. Schools cannot altogether get rid of the
  problem of truancy.
• eliminate

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Exercise 1 Replace the phrasal verbs in the
sentences with a more appropriate verb.

• 5. The number of staff has been cut down
  recently.
• reduced
• 6. It was very difficult to find out exactly what
  happened.
• establish/ identify
• 7. House prices have a tendency to go up and
  down.
• fluctuate

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Exercise 2Which of the two alternatives in bold
do you think is more appropriate in academic
writing?

• 1.The government has made considerable/great/
  impressive progress in solving the problem.
• considerable
• 2.We got/obtained/received excellent results in
  the experiment.
• obtained
• 3.The results of lots of/ endless/ numerous tests
  have been beneficial/ pretty good/ encouraging.
• numerous
• encouraging

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Exercise 2Which of the two alternatives in bold
do you think is more appropriate in academic
writing?

• 4. A loss of jobs is one of the consequences/
  results/ things that will happen if the process
  is automated.
• consequences
• 5. The relationship between the management and
  workers is somewhat/ extremely/ really important.
• extremely

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Exercise 3Suggest alternatives to the following
to avoid use of personal language.

• In this essay we will discuss the main
  differences between the English and Scottish
  legal systems.
• This essay will discuss
• 2. You can apply the same theory to how small
  children learn.
• The same theory can be applied the learning of
  small children.

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Exercise 3Suggest alternatives to the following
to avoid use of personal language.

• 3. I have divided my report into five sections.
• The report is divided in/ has five sections.
• In my opinion, this a very interesting study.
• This a very interesting study.
• 5. Although I am not an expert in the field, I
  have tried very hard to understand the main
  ideas.
• ??? Dont

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Exercise 4Make these statements more cautious

• 1. Today everyone uses credit cards for all their
  shopping.
• The use of credit card for everyday shopping has
  become widespread in the last 10 years.
• 2. Pregnant women are not allowed to drink wine.
• Medical evidence suggests that pregnant women
  should not drink wine
• 3. Global warming will have disastrous
  consequences for the whole world.
• Global warming is likely to/ expected to bring
• 4. Tele working leads to isolation.
• Studies have suggested that tele working
• 5. Everybody has to cut down to survive this
  recession.
• Many households will have to reduce expenditure
  to weather the current recession.

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Exercise 5Rewrite the following in a more formal
style.

• 1. The positive feedback made up for the problems
  we came across during the trials.
• The positive feedback compensated for problems
  incurred during the trial.
• 2. You can clearly see the differences between
  these two learning processes.
• The difference between these two leaning
  processes is easily visible / apparent/ evident.
• 3. The subjects didn't have much difficulty with
  the task.
• The study participants completed the task with
  difficulties.

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Exercise 5Rewrite the following in a more formal
style.

• 4. We found example after example of autonomous
  systems in lots of countries.
• Examples of autonomous systems can be found in
  many different countries.
• 5. The opinion of the present author in this
  essay is that the importance of the monarchy has
  to be reduced.
• The importance of the monarchy should be
  reduced.
• 6. Surely,in ten years all these drugs will be
  legalized.
• It is likely that in ten years time all these
  drugs will have been legalised.