Study Writing skills – II 20 – Dec - 2008 Dr. Dilip Barad Writing skills for academic purpose Liz Hamp-Lyons & Ben Heasley Pub: CUP

Read the paragraphs in photo copies. Give ratings: 1 to the most academics and 4 to the least Compare your answer: From the most to the least academic: B D C A. Explanation: B: This is the most academic, having been taken from a research book on academic writing. It exhibits complex sentence structure with ‘distant’ verb forms such as present perfect (e.g. ‘have had’); high-level vocabulary, such as ‘reciprocal relationship’ and ‘complex cognitive and linguistic skills’; content that display the outcome of serious thought and nominalization. Dr. Dilip Barad

Compare your answer:

From the most to the least academic: B D C A.

Explanation:

B: This is the most academic, having been taken from a research book on academic writing. It exhibits complex sentence structure with ‘distant’ verb forms such as present perfect (e.g. ‘have had’); high-level vocabulary, such as ‘reciprocal relationship’ and ‘complex cognitive and linguistic skills’; content that display the outcome of serious thought and nominalization.

Cont… Nominalization: academic writers frequently use the noun forms of verbs to help focus their work on concepts rather than specific actions. E.g. Using ‘development, application, and activation’ rather than ‘develop, active and apply’. Dr. Dilip Barad

Nominalization: academic writers frequently use the noun forms of verbs to help focus their work on concepts rather than specific actions. E.g. Using ‘development, application, and activation’ rather than ‘develop, active and apply’.

Explanation cont… D: this is the second mist academic, being taken from a research report. It exhibits complex sentences; references (kunii, 1994); academic vocabulary, ‘effectively’, ‘capability’, and ‘disseminated’; passives, ‘it has been claimed; and discourse markers, ‘with this in mind’, ‘The capability to’ and ‘To prepare our students for these endeavors'. This text is more explicit than ‘B’ – it belongs academic genre – it is a research report. Dr. Dilip Barad

D: this is the second mist academic, being taken from a research report. It exhibits complex sentences; references (kunii, 1994); academic vocabulary, ‘effectively’, ‘capability’, and ‘disseminated’; passives, ‘it has been claimed; and discourse markers, ‘with this in mind’, ‘The capability to’ and ‘To prepare our students for these endeavors'. This text is more explicit than ‘B’ – it belongs academic genre – it is a research report.

Explanation cont… Dr. Dilip Barad C: This is a mixture of academic and non-academic modes. It contains direct reference to the reader, ‘your’ and ‘you’; but it also contains a passive, ‘the reader is focused’; and is itself a ling complex sentence. The text was taken form an instruction manual. A: this could be part of speech, or an informal letter or e-mail. The style is didactic rather than academic. The use of a question-n-answer sequence suggests informality, as does the use of the filler ‘Anyway’.

C: This is a mixture of academic and non-academic modes. It contains direct reference to the reader, ‘your’ and ‘you’; but it also contains a passive, ‘the reader is focused’; and is itself a ling complex sentence. The text was taken form an instruction manual.

A: this could be part of speech, or an informal letter or e-mail. The style is didactic rather than academic. The use of a question-n-answer sequence suggests informality, as does the use of the filler ‘Anyway’.

Dr. Dilip Barad The writing process: Visualizing your text Before we study Grammar and Linguistic relativity of academic writing, let us see how can we visualize our text? To write texts that are academic, begin by thinking about three key elements: audience, purpose and material. Ask yourself 3 questions…

Before we study Grammar and Linguistic relativity of academic writing, let us see how can we visualize our text?

To write texts that are academic, begin by thinking about three key elements: audience, purpose and material.

Ask yourself 3 questions…

Ask yourself: Who is the text for? (A) Why is the text needed? (P) What resources – data, evidence, reference material, and so on – have I got that I can use? (M) Dr. Dilip Barad

Who is the text for? (A)

Why is the text needed? (P)

What resources – data, evidence, reference material, and so on – have I got that I can use? (M)

Dr. Dilip Barad Ideas for starting academic text Material: make sure you have enough material, resources, data, evidence etc available. Highlight ideas, evidence and arguments. Purpose : is it report or argument. Going to be used for??? Audience: who are readers? How will they use the text? Their depth of knowledge n reading?

Material: make sure you have enough material, resources, data, evidence etc available.

Highlight ideas, evidence and arguments.

Purpose : is it report or argument. Going to be used for???

Audience: who are readers? How will they use the text? Their depth of knowledge n reading?

Dr. Dilip Barad Writing about writing Draft an email of approximately 500 words describing the difficulties you face (or expect to face) in writing academic essays and articles in English. Send your email to [email_address] or submit it on www.dilipbarad.com/tell Before u start: Who the audience is? (parents, teachers, students, colleagues, researchers …) What material? (your experience? What else?) What purpose? (will it help u in developing writing skills?)

Draft an email of approximately 500 words describing the difficulties you face (or expect to face) in writing academic essays and articles in English. Send your email to [email_address] or submit it on www.dilipbarad.com/tell

Before u start:

Who the audience is? (parents, teachers, students, colleagues, researchers …)

What material? (your experience? What else?)

What purpose? (will it help u in developing writing skills?)