English for academic and professional purposes

1. ACADEMIC
WRITING

2. At the end of this lesson, the students should be
able to:
A.Identify the characteristics of academic writing;
B. Discriminate informal word usage from formal word
usage, and
C. Revise text to remove clutter, eliminate wordiness,
and clarify meaning.

5. According to Uychoco and Santos (2018), Academic
writing refers to a student’s informed, scholarly, and
insightful contribution to ongoing discussions of
relevant topics or issues.

6. to University of Leeds (UK) Academic writing is clear, concise,
structured and backed up by evidence. Its purpose is to aid the
According
focused,
reader’s understanding. It has a formal tone and style, but it is not
not require the use of long sentences and complicated
complex and does
vocabulary.
STRUCTURE
D
EVIDENCED CRITICAL PRECISE
BALANCED OBJECTIVE FORMAL
FEATURES OF ACADEMIC WRITING

7. STRUCTURED
An academic text is not just a collection of ideas about a
topic—it needs to have a clear purpose. Start with a relevant
research question or thesis statement, and use it to develop a
focused argument. Only include information that is relevant to
your overall purpose.
Two common structures of ACADEMIC TEXT:
- Consists of introduction, body and a
conclusion.
- Sections are Introduction, Methods,
Results and Discussion.

8. EVIDENCED
Academic writing uses sources to support its claims. Sources
are other texts (or media objects like photographs or films)
that the author analyzes or uses as evidence. Many of your
sources will be written by other academics; academic writing is
collaborative and builds on previous research.

9. PRECISE
In academic writing you need to be precise when you use
information, dates or figures.
Do not use "a lot of people" when you can say "50 million
people".

10. CONCISENESS
1. Don’t use two or more action verbs when one only is needed to
make the meaning clear.
Ex. Nate began to cry when his dog died.
The moment at which Nate began to cry is not all that important; as
long as the reader understands he was crying.
✔ Nate cried when his dog died.

11. Example 2: Mom started to holler after Gloria broke the vase.
✔ Mom hollered after Gloria broke the vase.
Example 3: With the wolf close on my heels, I continued running
through the woods.
✔ With the wolf close on my heels, I ran through the woods.
2. Cut the adverb implied in the verb.
Ex.: She sprinted [rapidly] after the bus.
Grandpa stumbled [clumsily] over the cat.
Mary cried [sadly] because Bambi’s mother died.

12. 3. Always be cautious of ‘that’
When using the word ‘that’, try reading the
sentence without it, if the sentence still makes
sense , cut it.
Ex. He thought that he was late.
I’m certain that he went home.

13. 5. Don’t use phrases that add words, not meaning.
- Instead of, ‘due to the fact that’, write ‘because’
‘in the event that’ write ‘if’
‘with the possible exception of’ write ‘except’
‘At the present time’ write ‘now’
6. Avoid using intensifiers (very and too)
Ex.: He was very tired (X)
He was tired (/) or
He was exhausted (/)

14. 7. Make sentences and paragraphs more concise by omitting
unnecessary prepositions and prepositional phrases.
Ex. With much hesitance, I made my way to the dance
floor. (X)
Hesitantly, I made my way to the dance floor. (/)
At this point in time we should demonstrate, as has
always been the case in the past, much trust in the good
judgment of the CEO. (X)
Now, as always, we should trust the CEO. (/)

15. • This afternoon at 2:00 pm the acquitted
President of the country was transferred
away to the prison facility by means of a
chopper. (X)
• At 2:00 pm the acquitted President of the
country was transferred to the prison by a
chopper. (/)

16. BALANCED
Should give considerations to all sides of the issue.
Use of hedging- use of cautious language.
Example:
1. Children living in poverty do poorly in school.
(As we can see, the original argument can be easily refuted, and as a result
readers might question the writer’s credibility. )
2. Children living in poverty tend to do poorly in school.
(Due to adding the verb tend, a writer acknowledges that this is just a
poor children who are successful in school.)

17. Some of the ways to soften claims include the use of:

18. Some of the ways to soften claims include the use of:

19. Make the following sentences into hedged claims by selecting the
tentative language from the options below.
1. Age a contributing factor to the observed behaviour.
a. was
b. was likely to be
2. The two age groups surveyed similar attitudes towards immigrants.
a. appeared to hold
b. held

20. 1. The nervousness displayed by some of the placement teachers
may have been due to the presence of observers.
2. The nervousness displayed by some of the placement teachers was
due to the presence of observers.
3. The nervousness displayed by some of the placement teachers was
clearly due to the presence of observers.
In which statement does the writer make the most cautious claim?
1 2 3

21. FORMAL
Avoid contractions, abbreviations and colloquial/ informal word
Option A: We will pick you up at 7:30. Do not be late. I am serious, Owen. If
you are not ready, we cannot wait around.
Option B: We’ll pick you up at 7:30. Don’t be late. I’m serious, Owen. If
you’re not ready, we can’t wait around.
CONTRACTIONS - A contraction is a compressed version of a word (or
words) that’s created by leaving out one or more letters.

22. FORMAL
Avoid abbreviations
ABBREVIATION - is an umbrella term for a shortened version of a longer
word or phrase.
Avoid using abbreviations in the following sections of an academic paper:
• Title – Your title should be accessible to all readers and easy to
understand. Avoid ambiguity by spelling out phrases in full.
Correct: The Environmental Protection Agency’s Stance on Carbon
Capture
Incorrect: The EPA’s Stance on Carbon Capture
• Abstract
• Section headings
• Reference section

23. FORMAL
Avoidcolloquial/ informal word
Colloquial language - defined as language that is ‘normally restricted to
informal (especially] spoken) English’ (Burchfield, 2004), does not satisfy
this need for exactness of expression.
Some types of colloquial language are obviously inappropriate for use
in academic writing, such as slang (e.g. ‘till’ instead of ‘until’) or vulgar
expressions. However, less obviously, you should also avoid the
following.
1. Clichés
For example: ‘time will tell’ and ‘as luck would have it’.
These expressions are commonly used in speech, but for formal
writing, they lack both the specificity of meaning required to lend

24. FORMAL
Avoidcolloquial/ informal word
Idioms
For example: ‘a drop in the ocean’ and ‘cut to the chase’.
First, as with clichés, these expressions lack specificity of meaning.
Second, and even more problematically, because idioms cannot be
understood literally.
Fillers
For example, ‘very’, ‘so’ and ‘even’.
It is common to use filler words to add emphasis and rhythm in
speech. However, such words are unnecessary in academic writing
and detract from its effectiveness.

25. YAY OR NAY?
LITERATURE REVIEW
TRAVELOGUE
DEFINITIONPAPER
LITERARY CRITICISM
NEWSPAPERS
POEM
DISSERTATION/THESIS
TABLOIDS
BIBLE
ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY