Academic Writing Style

Writing is a form of communication that is shaped by the

following factors:
1. Topic – What is the text about? What details am I
imparting to the readers?
2. Role – Who am I as a writer? Do I write as a sibling?
A student? A son/a daughter? A customer?
3. Purpose – Why am I writing this in the first place?
4. Audience – Who is reading this piece? What
knowledge does he/she need to understand in
writing?
President: Cardinal Tagle, let me be frank with you. I
have no quarrel with religion because religion will not
save you. It is God who will decide your fate. Since
your job is to educate the faithful, my job is to
eradicate those who are killing the faithful. How can
one think about God, honor his father, mother,
brothers, and sisters and neighbors if he has been
affected by drugs? An addict only thinks of when to get
the next fix and if he cannot afford it, he will steal, he
will rob your home and even kill just to satisfy his
addiction. This is my job – Cardinal, it is not for me, but
for the next generation whom I want to see a truly “drug
free society” in our country. Can you solve that problem
Cardinal?
ASPECTS OF
PROFESSIONAL
AND ACADEMIC
LANGUAGE
 Think of an SMS personal
message in your social
networking account or e-mail
that was missent to you.
Reflect on the details that
made you realize that you
were not the intended
recipient of the message.
Share your reflections in
class.
Four features of language use

1. Formality
2. Objectivity
3. Explicitness
4. Caution
Formality

• Reflects dignified stance in writing as a

member of the academic community.
• The language use requires precision to
make it a “legitimate” piece of academic
writing.
 formality

Formality can be achieved

through the following ways:
1. Choosing expanded modal forms over contracted
forms, such as using cannot instead of can’t, do not
instead of don’t.
2. Choosing one verb form one two-word verbs, such as
damage instead of mess up.
3. Choosing expanded terms over their abbreviated
equivalents, such as as soon as possible instead of
ASAP.
4. Avoiding colloquial/trite/idiomatic expressions such as
kind of like, as a matter of fact, I need to go to the
John.
• Quiz
Objectivity

• Academic writing requires special

knowledge and use of more complex
language & objectivity.
• Writing must be impersonal & maintains a
certain level of social distance.
 objectivity

Objectivity can be achieved by:

1. Avoiding the use of personal pronouns

such as you, I, and we.
Poor example:
You need to conduct the experiment.
Improved version:
The researchers need to conduct the
experiment.
 objectivity

2. Avoiding rhetorical questions as it

marks “closeness” with the reader, and
constantly seeks his/her attention.
Poor Example:
How can these problems be solved?
Improved Version:
Certain measures must be discovered
to solve the problems.
 objectivity

3. Avoiding emotive language that shows

biases and lessens objectivity.
Poor Example:
The investigators were very shocked to
see the outcome of the tests.
Improved Version:
The investigators did not expect the
results.
• Quiz
 explicitness

Explicitness

• Academic writing demands the use of

signposts that allows readers to trace the
relationships in the parts of a study.
 explicitness

• If you intend to show a change in your line

of argument, make it clear by using
however.
Ex:
It is apparent that the government hopes to
provide assistance to the poor. However,
giving dole outs to the “poorest of the poor”
does not work in the long term.
The following phrases may be
explicitness

useful in making ideas explicit:

1. This is due to the…
A number of MERALCO consumers
trooped to the City Hall to claim a Php
500 cash incentive. This is due to the
Supreme Court ruling that overcharges
must be returned to the end users whose
electric consumption for the April- May
period was below 100kw/hr.
 explicitness

2. This resulted in…

With the Supreme Court ordering
MERALCO to return overcharges to the
end users, government offices have been
tapped to operate as claim centers. This
resulted in a number of MERALCO
consumers trooping to the City Hall to
claim the Php 500.00 cash incentive.
 explicitness

• When two ideas seem the same, express

each one clearly.
The study showed that eighty percent of
the 200 participants involved in the study
were dissatisfied with the operations of
MERALCO. Similarly, the data revealed
that majority of the participants were not
aware of the charges imposed on them by
MERALCO.
 explicitness

• If you intend to give extra information in

your sentence, make it clear by writing “In
addition…”
MERALCO has been operating as a
business conglomerate involving foreign
stakeholders and independent power
producers or IPP. In addition, MERALCO
owns major IPPs operating in the region.
 explicitness

• If you are giving examples, do so explicitly

by writing “For example…”
The MERALCO issue has led to disputes
between opposition and administration
senators. For example, those who have
been labelled as against the president
considered the issue as the
administration’s way of avoiding the NBN-
ZTE scandal.
 explicitness

Quiz:
Based on the examples given, write a sentence
for each of the following expressions that
would make your idea explicit.
1.However
2.This is due to the
3.Similarly
4.In addition
5.For example
 explicitness

Scoring Rubric:
3 points 2 points 1 point
The sentences The sentences The sentences are
effectively show some lapses not
communicate the in the use of understandable
intended meaning expressions that due to the misuse
through the use of show explicitness of expressions of
expressions that but they could still explicitness. There
show explicitness. be understood. are at least three
There are no There are one or grammatical errors
grammatical errors two grammatical in the work. It does
and a formal errors and lapses not use features of
academic writing in the academic the academic
style is used. writing style are writing style.
observed.
Caution
• Academic writing requires care since
knowledge is built from proven theories
and concepts. Therefore, caution is
needed to avoid sweeping generalizations.

Consider the following example:

Government officials are corrupt.
Comment:
Government officials are corrupt.

The statement is not completely true

and the rhetorical impact of the statement
may be misleading. The statement can be
improved through the use of devices such
as modal verbs, adverbs, or verbs.
Improved versions:

• Some government officials may be

corrupt. (modal verb)
• Corruption is commonly linked to some
key government officials. (adverb)
• A number of government officials tend to
be linked with cases of corruption. (verb)
In academic writing, caution needs to
be observed in the following parts of
your paper:
1. When a hypothesis needs to be tested.
2. Drawing conclusions or predictions from
your findings that may generalize certain
matters or may not be conclusive.
3. Referencing other’s work to build on your
own paper.
Forms to use in observing
caution in writing:
• Verbs indicating caution: tends, suggests,
appear to be, think, believe, doubt,
indicate.
– Ex.
• The findings of the survey suggest that students
who use the social networking in their academic
work tend to be more updated on recent
developments in their respective subjects.
Forms to use in observing
caution in writing:
• Modal verbs: will, must, would, may,
can, might, could
– Ex.
• The observations of students’ use of social
networking site may lead to the different
behaviors that manifest in real-life
communication.
Forms to use in observing
caution in writing:
• Adverbs of frequency: often, soemtimes,
usually
(The essays that were given marks were usually
high.)
Ex.
Since academic writing draws on previous writings done
related to your topic (in the case of research writing), it is
important that creating knowledge is expressed through
means that do not lead to sweeping generalizations that
may directly attack other writers’ point of view.
Quiz:
• Examine the following expressions and
think of ways to reduce the impact of the
utterances.
Direct Expression Statement Using Hedging
He has halitosis.

You need to eat this to be healthy.

The different steps taken led to

their failure.
Improve the text below by rewriting it into
a more objective, impersonal version.

• I believe that incidence of drug overdose has

indeed become prevalent nowadays. When
people are faced with difficult problems, I think
that they can no longer bear the problem and
that is why they get into drugs. That’s why if you
are a psychologist, you should treat your
patients in a way that helps them to understand
their problems and ways to deal with them. Yeah
I know it can be very difficult but hey, that’s what
you specialized in, right?