Stylish Academic Writing (SAW) is a rather new concept but gaining its popularity since Helen Sword published her book at Harvard University in 2012. This presentation exploits some of the key principles of the book as well as looks at online concordancers (JTW, based on BNC of English language) designed to help you craft academic sentences.

1. Stylish Academic Writing:
Crafting Sentences
Tatiana Kuzmina
● PhD in chemistry, 1976
● Diploma in ELT, 1998
● CPE, 2000
● CE Speaking Examiner, 2002 -
now
● Associate Professor, 2005
● BI/SE HSE, 2008-2014
2012

2. Some ELT Books:
● FCE, 2003, CenterCom
● YLE, 2010. Britannia
● EFA, 2014, CUP&British Council

3. Session outline
1. Trends in AW: 2004 - now; implications
2. SAW by Helen Sword
i. ‘Things To Try’ for ‘smarter sentences’
ii. Practising Writers Diet test
3. Short piece of writing about writing with brief presentation
1. JTW concordancer and crafting some combinations
2. Practising JTW on your own
3. AWC_Wiki_page online exercises on academic
style/topic sentences

4. About Google Trends
● Link to Google Trends -
http://www.google.com/trends/
● What numbers mean in Graphs -
https://support.google.com/trends/answer/43
55164?hl=en&rd=1
Numbers on the graph
The numbers on the graph reflect how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of
searches done on Google over time. They don't represent absolute search volume numbers, because the data is
normalized and presented on a scale from 0-100. Each point on the graph is divided by the highest point and multiplied by
100. When we don't have enough data, 0 is shown.

5. Example: TOEFL- IELTS- CE exams

6. Trends in AW: 2004 - now; “Academic…”
Most popular
search items:
● Research
Article
● AW (26-40)

7. Trends in AW: 2004 - now; “........Writing”
Most popular search
items:
● Research
Writing
● AW/ScienceW
● IELTS Writing
steadily
growing

8. Trends in AW: 2004 - now; “I,we,it,he,you…”
❖ Most popular
search items:
● I…..
● You….
● We….
● He...None
❖ Personal
pronouns in
search items
came up only
recently...

9. SAW by Helen Sword, Harvard University Press, 2012
Watch
a YouTube
video (10 min
out of 26)

10. H.Sword...p 48; ‘...a carefully crafted sentence...readers
can identify “who’s kicking whom’
Bridge over rough terrain Comfortable rocking chair

11. H.Sword...p 49; ‘Key principles of smart sentencing...’
1. Employ plenty of concrete and vivid
verbs while discussing abstract
concepts
1. Keep nouns and verbs close together
1. Avoid extraneous words and phrases

12. ‘Things To Try’ for ‘smarter sentences’
● Diagnose your ‘verbal fitness level’ in a playful way by doing
test on www.writersdiet.com (up to 1000 words) and see if
it’s “flabby or fit”.
● Analyse your ‘WritersDiet Tests’ results. If they reveal:
o ‘Adj/Adv’ weakness - cut down on them
o ‘This, That, It..’ weakness - cut down on them
● Use ‘There’ sparingly…..
● Replace a few be verbs with active, unusual verbs (sway,
masquerade instead of predictable shows…)

13. ‘Things To Try’ for ‘smarter sentences’
● Simplify nominalizations by making sure:
o that at least 1 sts per Ph has a concrete noun followed by
an active Verb
o Cut down on prepositional phrases (if they string long sts of
N-phrases)
o Use examples to explain abstract concepts
● Measure the distance between Nouns and their accompanying
Verbs. When the distance is more than 12 words, rewrite the
sts…
Online Test - http://www.writersdiet.com/WT.php

14. A Comparative Evaluation of Alternative Blended Learning Models Used for Teaching Academic English
(EAP/ESAP) to Students of Computer Sciences, Tatiana Kuzmina, Tatiana Golechkova, SAP, v3, 2012
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B712foXVwKGKYlpvYnV2NU9GSFk/view?usp=sharing

16. ● ‘What is the author really trying to say?’
● ‘What are the main contributors to ‘Clutter’?’
According to deMan, the robustness
of this incoherence, the failure of the
sublime to secure an exit from
scepticism through philosophical
argument, indicates that Kant’s
analysis relies on rhetorical sleight of
hand [Literary Stidies]
The original objective of the
sanitation project, known as Bahia
Azur or Blue Bay, was the control of
marine pollution, which was largely
caused by the discharge of domestic
water [Medicine]
It is now generally understood that
constraints play an important role in
commonsense moral thinking and
generally accepted that thay cannot be
accommodated by ordinary, traditional
consequentialism. Some have seen
this as the most conclusive evidence
that moral common sense is
hopelessly paradoxical. {Philosophy]
1
2
H.Sword...p 53;Crafting -
3

17. Key
1. De Man argues that Kant relies on rhetorical sleight of
hand
2. We designed the sanitation project to control marine
pollution
3. we can deduce that ‘It’ and ‘this’ refer to the fact that
traditional consequentialism cannot accommodate the
constraints involved in commonsense moral thinking

18. Short piece of writing about writing
Write appx 120-150
words describing what
difficulties you face (or
expect to face) in writing
academic articles in
English.
-discuss, peer feedback, present

19. JTW concordancer:http://www.just-the-word.com/
...is a corpus
of about
80,000,000
words of the
British
National
Corpus
(BNC.).

20. Collocations & JTW
Collocations are combinations of words that "fit together";
i.e. predictable patterns and phrases we typically use
together.
Examples: "take a break", "get on a bus/get in a car",
JTW shows ‘good’ and ‘bad’ combinations as well as
suggests alternatives.
Question: “get/obtain/gain results”

21. JTW - Combinations; ‘Result’

22. JTW - alternatives ‘gain result’

23. JTW - Wordle

24. AWC_HSE_2015 Wiki page
● link to wiki -
http://efaspeakinggroup4.pbworks.com/w/pa
ge/52575794/About%20this%20WIKI
● link to AWC_HSE_2015 page-
http://efaspeakinggroup4.pbworks.com/w/page/91975128/AWC_HSE_2015
● useful links for SAW
● exercises on topic sts