This document discusses the key characteristics of academic writing, including that it is complex, formal, objective, explicit, hedged, and precise. It provides examples of how academic writing uses complex language through higher lexical density. Formality is achieved by avoiding colloquial language and being objective by removing first-person pronouns. Explicitness involves clearly signposting ideas and relationships between parts of the text. Hedging uses cautious language to acknowledge uncertainty, and precision involves using specific details like dates, figures or definitions.

1. ACADEMIC WRITING
DR NIRAJ THURAIRAJAH
BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY

2. ACADEMIC WRITING
Academic writing is:
Complex
Formal
Objective
Explicit
Hedged
Precise

3. COMPLEXITY
Written English usually has a higher lexical density
than spoken English
 Lexical density is a measure of the proportion of
content words in a sentence or text
 A content word is any verb, noun, adverb or adjective
which has a stable and significant lexical meaning
 capability (noun)
 organisational (adjective)
 enhance (verb)
 productively (adverb)

4. COMPLEXITY
 The higher the density of a text, the harder the text is
to read
 Lexical density can be defined as a percentage by the
following formula:
 Lexical Density = (number of content words / total number of words) X
100

5. COMPLEXITY
 Signi f icant expendi ture on product market ing might only be of l imi ted
assistance to a corporat ion i f the qual i ty of that product is below a cer tain
minimum acceptable standard.
 This sentence contains 52% content words, and thus is quite dense.
 I t is not much use spending a lot of money on market ing a product i f the
qual i ty of the product is poor.
 This sentence contains about 36% content words. It is less dense and therefore easier to
read than sentence 1.
 I f I were you I would not spend a lot of money on market ing that product of
yours.
 This sentence contains about 22% content words. It is not dense and is easier to read
than sentence 2.
 Spending money on market ing a low qual i ty product is probably unhelpful .
 This sentence contains about 64% content words. It is dense. However, it is shor t and
easy to read.

6. STRATEGIES FOR ELIMINATING WORDINESS
 You can eliminate wordiness in your writing:
 Mark sections of your writing that you struggled to produce
 Pass through your paper once, focusing only on eliminating
unnecessary and repetitive language
 Remove filler phrases in your writing
 Before editing, give yourself a breather
 Learn what wordiness and repetition patterns are typical of your
writing, and edit with those patterns in mind

7. FORMALITY
 In general, in academic writing you should avoid:
 colloquial words and informal expressions; “stuf f”, “a lot of”, “thing”, “sor t of”
 features of speech such as “well”, “anyway”
 repetition, redundancy and wordiness; “completely unique”, “adding together”
 two word verbs: “put of f”, “bring up”
 abbreviated forms: “can't”, “doesn't”, “shouldn't”
 sub-headings, numbering and bullet -points in formal essays, but use them in
reports
 using “etc.”

8. FORMALITY
 Fleming did well in isolating a streptococcus from
the cerebrospinal fluid of the patient.
 Fleming succeeded in isolating a streptococcus from
the cerebrospinal fluid of the patient.
 The material amenities of life have gone up in
Western society.
 The material amenities of life have increased in
Western society.

9. OBJECTIVITY
 The main emphasis should be on the information that you
want to give and the arguments you want to make, rather than
you
 No b o d y r e a l ly wa nt s to k now wh a t yo u “ t h i nk” o r " b e l ieve”
 They want to know what you have studied and learned and
how this has led you to your various conclusions
 The thoughts and bel iefs should be based on your lectures,
reading, discussion and research

10. COMPARE THESE TWO PARAGRAPHS:
 Which is the most objective?
 We don't really know what language proficiency is but many people have
talked about it for a long time. Some researchers have tried to find ways
for us to make teaching and testing more communicative because that is
how language works. I think that language is something we use for
communicating, not an object for us to study and we remember that when
we teach and test it.
 The question of what constitutes "language proficiency" and the nature of
its cross-lingual dimensions is also at the core of many hotly debated
issues in the areas of bilingual education and second language pedagogy
and testing. Researchers have suggested ways of making second
language teaching and testing more "communicative" (e.g., Canale and
Swain, 1980; Oller, 1979b) on the grounds that a communicative
approach better reflects the nature of language proficiency than one
which emphasises the acquisition of discrete language skills.

11. OBJECTIVITY
 Avo i d wo r d s l i ke “ I ” , “me ”, “my s e lf ”
 A reader wi l l normal ly assume that any idea not referenced is
your own. It is therefore unnecessary to make this explicit
 Don't write: “In my opinion, this a very interesting study”
 Write: “This is a very interesting study”
 Avoid "you" to refer to the reader or people in general
 Don't write: “You can easily forget how different life was 50
years ago”
 Write: “It is easy to forget how difficult life was 50 years ago”

12. EXPLICITNESS
 Academic writing is explicit in its signposting of the
organisation of the ideas in the text
 As a writer of academic English, it is your
responsibility to make it clear to your reader how
various par ts of the text are related
 These connections can be made explicit by the use of
dif ferent signalling words

13. EXPLICITNESS
What is wrong with the following?
 The Bristol 167 was to be Britain's great new advance on
American types such as the Lockheed Constellation and
Douglas DC-6, which did not have the range to fly the Atlantic
non-stop. It was also to be the largest aircraft ever built in
Britain. By the end of the war, the design had run into serious
difficulties.

14. EXPLICITNESS
 If you want to tell your reader that your line of
argument is going to change, make it clear.
 The Bristol 167 was to be Britain's great new advance on
American types such as the Lockheed Constellation and
Douglas DC-6, which did not have the range to fly the Atlantic
non-stop. It was also to be the largest aircraft ever built in
Britain. By the end of the war, the design had run into serious
difficulties.
 The Bristol 167 was to be Britain's great new advance on
American types such as the Lockheed Constellation and
Douglas DC-6, which did not have the range to fly the Atlantic
non-stop. It was also to be the largest aircraft ever built in
Britain. However, even by the end of the war, the design had
run into serious difficulties.

15. EXPLICITNESS
 I f you are giving examples, do it expl icitly
 For example
 I f you think that one sentence gives reasons for something in
another sentence, make it expl icit
 Because
 Be explicit in your acknowledgment of the sources of the
ideas
 You can either paraphrase i f you want to keep the length the
same, summarise i f you want to make the text shor ter or
synthesise i f you need to use information from several
sources

16. CITING SOURCES
 One of the most impor tant aspects of academic writing is
making use of the ideas of other people
 Show that you have understood the materials that you have
studied and that you can use their ideas and findings in your
own way
 Any academic text you read or write wi l l contain the voices of
other writers as wel l as your own
 In your writing, the main voice should be your own and it
should be clear what your point of view is in relation to the
topic or essay question

17. HEDGING
 An impor tant feature of academic writing is the concept of
c a u t i o us l a n g u ag e , o f te n c a l l e d “ h e dg in g ” o r “ va g ue l a n g uag e ”
 I t is necessary to make decisions about your stance on a
par ticular subject, or the strength of the claims you are
making
 Weismann proved that animals become old because, if they did not,
there could be no successive replacement of individuals and hence
no evolution.
 Weismann suggested that animals become old because, if they did
not, there could be no successive replacement of individuals and
hence no evolution.
 Nowadays the urinary symptoms are of a lesser order.
 Nowadays the urinary symptoms seem to be of a lesser order.

18. PRECISION
 In academic writing you need to be precise when you
use information, dates or figures
 “a lot of people” or “50 million people”
 “the past” or “ from 1964 to 1997”
 “recently” or “during the last 12 years”, or “since
1997”

19. ACADEMIC WRITING
Academic writing
is:
Complex
Formal
Objective
Explicit
Hedged
Precise

20. FURTHER READING:
Using English for Academic Purposes: A
Guide for Students in Higher Education
http://www.uefap.com
Gillett, A., Hammond, A. And Martala, M.
(2009) Inside Track to Successful Academic
Writing. Pearson Education Limited.