Features of Academic Writing

Academic Writing Principles & Features

A. Complexity

B. Formality

C. Precision

D. Objectivity

E. Explicitness

F. Accuracy

G. Hedging

H. Responsibility

OBJECTIVITY

This means that the main emphasis should be on the information that you want to give and the arguments you want to make, rather than you. This is related to the basic nature of academic study and academic writing, in particular.

Nobody really wants to know what you "think" or "believe". They want to know what you have studied and learned and how this has led you to your various conclusions.

The thoughts and beliefs should be based on your lectures, reading, discussion and research and it is important to make this clear.

http://www.uefap.com/writing/feature/objectiv.htm



Being objective suggests that you are concerned about facts and are not influenced as much by personal feelings or biases.Part of being objective is being fair in your work. Try to show both sides of an argument if you can and avoid making value judgments through your use of words such as “wonderful” or “sarcastically”. Being objective also makes your work more professional and believable.

Massey University 25 October, 2012

Techniques to make your writing more objective

• Move information around in the sentence to emphasize things and ideas, instead of people and feelings.

Example:

Instead of writing "I believe the model is valid, based on these findings", write "These findings indicate that the model is valid" or "The following section will show how the model is validated by the findings".

The University of Sydney06-Dec-2012

• Avoid evaluative words which are based on non-technical judgments and feelings, such as "badly", "disappointment", "amazing", etc.

• Instead use technical evaluations which related to academic or discipline-specific criteria and values - such as "valid", "inaccurate", "reliable", "clearly demonstrates", "rigor", "out-dated", etc.


• Avoid intense or emotional evaluative language. Instead, use more moderate and graded evaluative language.

Example:

Instead of writing "Parents who smoke are obviously abusing their children", write "Second hand smoke has some harmful effects on children’s health."


• Use modality to show caution about your views, or to allow room for others to disagree.

Example:

Instead of writing "I think second-hand smoke causes cancer", write "Second-hand smoke may cause cancer", or "There is evidence to support the possibility that second-hand smoke increases the risk of cancer."


• Find authoritative sources (i.e. authors or researchers in books or articles) who support your point of view, and refer to them in your writing.

Example:

Instead of writing "Language is, in my view, clearly something social", write "As Halliday (1973) shows, language is intrinsically social."


• Be explicit in expressing your ideas.

Example:

“ten” instead of “several”; “70%” instead of “most of the population”;

“three years ago” or “in 2006” instead of “some time ago”.


• Avoid language that implicitly excludes any group of people.


http://owll.massey.ac.nz/academic-writing/inclusive-language.php

• Avoid intensifiers which can tend to exaggerate your writing.

Example:

“awfully”, “very”, “really”.


• Avoid the personal pronoun “I” but write more impersonally.

Example:

“It could be argued that…” instead of “I think…”.


http://owll.massey.ac.nz/academic-writing/1st-vs-3rd-person.php

• Despite the fact that you are not encouraged to use the personal pronoun “I” in academic writing, your viewpoints and opinions will still come through.

• Although they may not be specifically attributed to you, the fact that the comments you choose to make are a part of your assignment tells the reader that you believe what you are writing.


• Stating “I think…” or “In my opinion…” weakens the text and the strength of your argument. In addition, adding such personal comments almost seems to emphasize that the writing is just your opinions or interpretations, rather than positions that are supported by logic and the evidence.

• However, some lecturers and some styles of academic writing (e.g. reflective writing) allow or encourage the use of the personal pronoun.


http://owll.massey.ac.nz/assignment-types/reflective-writing.php

Samples

• Clearly this was far less true of France than ...

• This is where the disagreements and controversies begin ...

• The data indicates that ...

• This is not a view shared by everyone; Jones, for example, claims that ...

• . . .very few people would claim ...

• It is worthwhile at this stage to consider ...

• Of course, more concrete evidence is needed before ...

• Several possibilities emerge ...

• A common solution is ...


• Don't write:" In my opinion, this a very interesting study."

• Write: "This is a very interesting study."

• 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."


Activity 1

a)

Qualitative research is the most interesting aspect of the study of malaria.

b)

It has been argued by many (Hills, 2003; Smith & Jones, 2004; Andrews, 2004) that qualitative research is the most interesting aspect of the study of malaria.

© 2010 London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Objective or subjective?Do you think sentence a) or b) is more objective?

the answer is b).'Interesting' is a subjective adjective (what is interesting for one person is deadly dull for another). An important point to remember in academic writing is that any views for which you do not give a citation are assumed to be your own so in sentence a) you are clearly expressing a personal opinion about qualitative research. In sentence b), however, you are reporting the fact that many others find it interesting - an entirely objective observation.

a)

Brown's excellent account of the UK economic situation has been widely distributed.

b)

Brown's account of the UK economic situation, which is regarded by many to be well-researched and accurate, has been widely distributed.



the answer is b). In this context, 'excellent' is a subjective term. In sentence 1) you are expressing a personal opinion as to the merits of Brown's work while in sentence b) you are reporting the views of others.

a)

The student's excellent exam results enabled her to apply for a postgraduate course.

b)

The student is more agreeable than most of those on the postgraduate course.


the answer is a). This one is tricky! - in this context 'excellent' is an objective view. An exam result of over 70% is regarded as excellent by examination boards worldwide. Comments about the nature of the individual student as in sentence b) are, of course, subjective.


a)

The results are astonishing.

b)

The results were unexpected and may potentially change our thinking on this topic.


the answer is b). 'Astonishing' is a subjective (and emotive) term, although you may have been astonished, other people reading your protocol may have been unsurprised by your findings. You can, however, say they were unexpected - this is indisputable.Objectivity is a particularly important feature which distinguishes academic writing from many other genres of writing. In scientific academic writing in particular, it is vital that you present your findings as facts. In essays where a personal opinion is called for, this should still be expressed in an impersonal tone and couched in formal language. For example, rather than saying, 'The present UK coalition government has blatantly disregarded the promises made by the Liberal Democrats not to increase tuition fees.'


COMPLEXITY

Complexity in academic writing comes from the fact that the standard written form of the English language, which is compulsory to be used, is different than the language we speak daily.

The vocabulary used by the written language is more varied than the one used in conversations. It also uses more complicated words that are not normally used when talking with someone face to face.

http://mytekah.hubpages.com/hub/8-Characteristics-of-Academic-Writing

The grammatical aspect of the written language is also different because we don’t normally use in speaking so many subordinate clauses and passives.

The phrases in the written language are noun-based and those in speaking language are verb-based. This also makes academic writing different from face to face communication or other types of writing.


FORMALITY

In close connection with complexity is formality. Under no circumstances will academic writing make use of colloquial expression that we consider natural in daily dialogues we have with friend or colleagues. The degree of formality should thus be pretty high.


PRECISION

Academic writing should be very precise. Factual information, figures or charts, should all be provided and nothing written there should leave room to interpretation.


EXPLICITNESS

The author of an academic writing is responsible for make it explicit and for making clear how different parts of the text are connected between them and why are they relevant for the central theme. There are certain words that can be used in order to emphasis this connection and they are called signaling words.


This is best achieved by anticipating the reader's questions. When revising your work before submission, try to think what questions your reader might want answers to if reading your assignment at this stage;

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wdc/learning/academic/explicit.htm

Example:

What is the purpose of this work?What does the author mean by this?How do these two ideas (or these two paragraphs) link together?Where is the evidence for this?What is the author's view about this issue?

Tips to help you make your writing explicit:

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wdc/learning/academic/explicit.htm

Explain what you intend to achieve/demonstrate. Define key concepts. If you find different definitions

for the same term in the literature, explain which one you will adopt or what the word means to you.

Make sure that links between ideas are clear. Use linking words and phrases if necessary.

Ensure that every claim is supported by evidence. Take a position in relation to the issues being

discussed. In other words, make sure that your viewpoint is clear to the reader.

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wdc/learning/language/signposting.htm

ACCURACY

An accurate use of vocabulary is a must in a text that wants to be academic. Extra attention should be paid when using words with a specific meaning and the writer should know that there is a clear distinction between phonetics and phonemics. This distinction is not so important when it comes to the general use of English language.


HEDGING

Some academic writers choose to use a technique called hedge. This has to do with the way that writer decides to approach a certain subject and with how strong the claims he makes are.


How factual can you be?

http://mail.humber.ca/~brett.reynolds/comm200/Hedging.ppt

It is often believed that academic writing, particularly scientific writing, is factual, simply to convey facts and information.

It is now recognised that an important feature of academic writing is the concept of cautious language, often called "hedging" or "vague language".

It is necessary to make decisions about your stance on a particular subject, or the strength of the claims you are making.

Language used in hedging

• Certain modal verbs• Certain modal auxiliary verbs• Adverbs of frequency• Modal adverbs• Modal adjectives• Modal nouns• That clauses


Identify the hedges

1. There is no difficulty in explaining how a structure such as an eye or a feather contributes to survival and reproduction; the difficulty is in thinking of a series of steps by which it could have arisen.

2. For example, it is possible to see that in January this person weighed 60.8 kg for eight days,

3. For example, it may be necessary for the spider to leave the branch on which it is standing, climb up the stem, and walk out along another branch.

4. E-coli , when found in conjunction with urethritis, often indicate infection higher in the uro-genital tract.

5. There is experimental work to show that a week or ten days may not be long enough and a fortnight to three weeks is probably the best theoretical period.


Identify the hedges

6. Conceivably, different forms, changing at different rates and showing contrasting combinations of characteristics, were present in different areas.

7. One possibility is that generalized latent inhibition is likely to be weaker than that produced by pre-exposure to the CS itself and thus is more likely to be susceptible to the effect of the long interval.

8. For our present purpose, it is useful to distinguish two kinds of chemical reaction, according to whether the reaction releases energy or requires it.

9. It appears to establish three categories: the first contains wordings generally agreed to be acceptable, the second wordings which appear to have been at some time problematic but are now acceptable, and the third wordings which remain inadmissible.

RESPONSIBILITY

Last, but not least, academic writing should be treated with responsibility. Everything stated should be accompanied by proofs and justifications and no assumptions are allowed. Sources should also be mentioned.


Thank you for listening…

chuck

Features of Academic Writing

Education

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