English for Academic and Professional Purposes Reviewer

Lesson 1: Academic Texts

What is Academic Writing?
- Academic writing or scholarly writing is nonfiction writing produced as part
of academic work. Academic writing is a formal style of writing used in
universities and scholarly publications. You’ll encounter it in journal articles
and books on academic topics, and you’ll be expected to write your essays,
research papers, and dissertation in academic style. Academic writing is
clear, concise, focused, structured and backed up by evidence. Its purpose
is to aid the reader’s understanding. It has a formal tone and style, but it is
not complex and does not require the use of long sentences and
complicated vocabulary.
Characteristics of Academic Writing:
Planned and focused- answers the question and demonstrates an understanding
of the subject.
Structured- is coherent, written in a logical order, and brings together related
points and material.
Evidenced- demonstrates knowledge of the subject area, supports opinions and
arguments with evidence, and is referenced accurately.
Formal in tone and style- uses appropriate language and tenses, and is clear,
concise and balanced.
Academic writing is...
 Formal and unbiased
 Clear and precise
 Focused and well-structured
 Well-sourced
 Correct and consistent
Academic writing is not...
 Personal
  Long-winded
 Emotive and grandiose

LESSON 2: Types of Academic Writing

Essay - A fairly short, self-contained argument, often using sources from a class in
response to a question provided by an instructor.
Research Paper - A more in-depth investigation based on independent research,
often in response to a question chosen by the student.
Thesis/dissertation - The large final research project undertaken at the end of a
degree, usually on a topic of the student’s choice.
Research proposal - An outline of a potential topic and plan for a future
dissertation or research project.
Literature review - A critical synthesis of existing research on a topic, usually
written in order to inform the approach of a new piece of research.
Different fields of study have different priorities in terms of the writing they
produce. For example, in scientific writing it’s crucial to clearly and accurately
report methods and results; in the humanities, the focus is on constructing
convincing arguments through the use of textual evidence.

Academic Language
Academic language - represents the language demands of school (academics).
Academic language includes language used in textbooks, in classrooms, on tests,
and in each discipline. It is different in vocabulary and structure from the
everyday spoken English of social interactions.
Academic vocabulary - is used in all academic disciplines to teach about the
content of the discipline, e.g., a water table is different from a periodic elements
table. Before taking chemistry, for example, some students know the technical
words used in chemistry, while others do not.
LESSON 3: The Structure of Academic Texts
- the structure of your writing depends on the type of assignment, but two
common structures used in academic writing are the three-part essay
structure and the IMRaD structure. Even shorter essays that are not divided
into titled sections follow such a structure. Longer texts may be further
divided into subsections. Different disciplines or departments may prefer
that students use a certain structure, so make sure to check with your
instructor if you are not sure what is expected of you.
Three-part essay structure - is a basic structure that consists of introduction,
body and conclusion. The introduction and the conclusion should be shorter than
the body of the text. For shorter essays, one or two paragraphs for each of these
sections can be appropriate. For longer texts or theses, they may be several pages
long.
The three-part essay structure is a basic structure that consists:
 Introduction
 Body
 Conclusion
Most academic texts in the sciences adhere to the model called IMRAD, which is
an acronym for introduction, methods and materials, results, and discussion.
 The model should, however, be complemented with sections for aims and
research questions,
 These make up the very backbone of an academic text in the sciences.
 These often appear towards the end of the introduction, but sometimes
also after a separate heading.
Writing a Scientific Research Report (IMRaD)
1. Introduction – Make a case for your research
- The introduction explains why this research is important or necessary.
- Begin by describing the problem or situation that motivates the research.
- Move to discussing the current state of research in the field; then reveal a
“gap” or problem in the field.
- Explain how the present research is a solution to that problem or gap. If the
study has hypotheses, they are presented at the end of the introduction.

2. Methods – What did you do?

- The methods section tells readers how you conducted your study.
- It includes information about your population, sample, methods, and
equipment.
- The “gold standard” of the methods section is that it should enable readers
to duplicate your study.
- Methods sections typically use subheadings; they are written in past tense,
and they use a lot of passive voice. This is typically the least read section of
an IMRaD report.

3. Results – What did you find?

- In this section, you present your findings. Typically, the Results section
contains only the findings, not any explanation of or commentary on the
findings (see below).
- Results sections are usually written in the past tense.
- Make sure all tables and figures are labeled and numbered separately.
- Captions go above tables and beneath figures.

4. Discussion – What does it mean?

- In this section, you summarize your main findings, comment on those
findings (see below), and connect them to the other research.
- You also discuss limitations of your study, and use these limitations as
reasons to suggest additional, future research.

5. Abstract – Summarize the entire study

- The abstract for the report comes at the beginning of the paper, but you
should write it after you have drafted the full report.
- The abstract provides a very short overview of the entire paper, including a
sentence or two about the report’s purpose and importance, a sentence or
two about your methods, a few sentences that present the main findings,
and a sentence or two about the implications of your findings.
Common problems in IMRaD drafts:
 The Abstract does not provide a clear statement of the main findings.
 The Introduction does not communicate clearly why the research is
important.
 The Methods section is not detailed enough or is disorganized.
 The Results section provides comments and explanations instead of simply
reporting results.
How to write an essay
- An essay is a focused piece of writing that develops an argument or
narrative based on evidence, analysis and interpretation.
There are three stages you need to follow:
 Preparation - decide on your topic, do your research, and create an essay
outline.
 Writing - set out your argument in the introduction, develop it with
evidence in the main body, and wrap it up with a conclusion.
 Revision - check the content, organization, grammar, spelling, and
formatting of your essay.
Introduction of an essay
- The introduction is important both to grab the reader’s interest and to
inform them of what will be covered in the essay. To learn how to write an
essay introduction, start by getting familiar with its most important goals.
 Hook your reader by piquing interest and curiosity
 Provide background and context on your topic
 Define the objective and formulate the thesis statement
 Provide a map of the content

1. Body of an Essay - is where you make arguments supporting your thesis

statement, provide evidence, and develop your ideas. Its central purpose is
to present, interpret and analyze the information and sources you have
gathered to support your argument.
 Length of the body text
 Paragraph structure
Conclusion of an Essay
The conclusion is the final paragraph of an essay. It should generally take up no
more than 10–15% of the text. A strong essay conclusion:
 Draws connections between the arguments made in the essay’s body
 States the outcome of your arguments
 Emphasizes the relevance and significance of the thesis statement for
policy, academia or the wider world
 Explores the broader implications and importance of the topic
A great conclusion should finish with a memorable or impactful sentence that
emphasizes the importance of your work and leaves the reader with a strong final
impression.
What Not to Include in a Conclusion
To make your essay’s conclusion as strong as possible, there are a few things you
should avoid including. The most common mistakes are:
 Including new arguments or evidence
 Undermining your arguments (e.g. “This is just one approach of many”)
 Using concluding phrases like “To sum up…” or “In conclusion…”

LESSON 4: Reading Skills for Academic Study

Purposes for reading:
 to scan for specific information
 to skim to get an overview of the text
 to relate new content to existing knowledge
 to write something (often depends on a prompt)
 to critique an argument
 to learn something or for general comprehension

Ask yourself “why am I reading?” and “what am I reading?” when deciding which
strategies to try.
Before Reading:
1. Think about your reasons for reading the text:
 you are interested because it is about your subject, or it is related to your
subject
 you want background information, or detailed information
 you want to know what the writer's views are
 you are going to have a discussion
 you are going to write an essay on this subject later
Each reason will influence the way you read e.g. quickly or slowly, looking for fact
or opinion.

2. Look at the title, headline, any sub-headings, photos or illustrations. Use

these to predict what the text will be about – the topic.
3. Think about what you already know on this topic.
4. Write down what you would like to find out from the text. You could write
actual questions.
5. Make a note of words or phrases connected with the topic that you may
find in the text.
Purposes for Reading:
People read different kinds of text (e.g., scholarly articles, textbooks, reviews) for
different reasons. Some purposes for reading might be
• to scan for specific information
• to skim to get an overview of the text
• to relate new content to existing knowledge
• to write something (often depends on a prompt)
• to critique an argument
• to learn something or for general comprehension

Strategies differ from reader to reader. The same reader may use different
strategies for different contexts because their purpose for reading changes. Ask
yourself “why am I reading?” and “what am I reading?” when deciding which
strategies to try.
Reading
1. Survey the text: read the first and last paragraphs and the beginning and
final sentences of the other paragraphs.
 How close were your predictions?
 Do you have a very general idea of the structure of the text, what the
different parts are about?

2. Identify your purpose for reading

 If you are looking for specific information, read the part where you think
the information we’ll be.
 If you want a general idea of the whole text, read the whole text.

In both cases ignore words or sections you don't immediately understand.

You should now have a general idea of what the text es about and if it is going to
be useful for you. Does et answer the question(s) you asked?

3. Write down in 1 or 2 sentences:

 what you think the mean ideas are
 what your first reaction to the text es. Do you fend et interesting,
informative, well-argued, boring, illogical, inaccurate?

4. Do a second more careful reading, marking any new words that are important
for your understanding.
Check on the mean idea and revise what you wrote if necessary.

Vocabulary
With the new words which you think are important: if an approximate
meaning is enough.
 try to guess the meaning using word function, context (immediate and
wider) and word form if the exact meaning es needed,
 use a dictionary
 ask another student, or your tutor
Difficult sentences
Divide the sentences where there are connectives or markers.
 What do the connectives mean?
 Underline reference words. What do they refer to?
After Reading
1. Make a list of the new words which you think well be useful for you in the
future. Give:
 definitions of the words
 indication of whether they are nouns, verbs, adjectives etc.
 phrases in which the word occurs
 other words with the same meaning
 other forms of the words

e.g. counselor (noun)=a person who gives help and support to people who have
problems, an adviser [counsel (noun), to counsel]

2. Evaluate what you have read

LESSON 5:

Summarizing text
Summarizing a text, or distilling its essential concepts into a paragraph or
two, is a useful study tool as well as good writing practice. A summary has two
aims: (1) to reproduce the overarching ideas in a text, identifying the general
concepts that run through the entire piece, and (2) to express these overarching
ideas using precise, specific language.

There are three ways of incorporating source information into your own writing:
summary, paraphrase, and direct quotation. When you summarize or paraphrase,
you restate in your own words the idea(s) of another speaker or writer.

How to Write A Summary:

Before you can summarize anything, you need to read and understand it. A
typical summary for an undergraduate research paper ranges from a few
sentences to one or two paragraphs. Here’s how to proceed:

1. Include the title and identify the author in your first sentence.
2. The first sentence or two of your summaries should contain the author’s
thesis, or central concept, stated in your own words. This is the idea that
runs through the entire text–the one you’d mention if someone asked you:
“What is this piece/article about?” Unlike student essays, the main idea in a
 primary document or an academic article may not be stated in one location
at the beginning. Instead, it may be gradually developed throughout the
piece or it may become fully apparent only at the end.

3. When summarizing a longer article, try to see how the various stages in the
explanation or argument are built up in groups of related paragraphs.
Divide the article into sections if it isn’t done in the published form. Then,
write a sentence or two to cover the key ideas in each section.

4. Omit ideas that are not really central to the text. Don’t feel that you must
reproduce the author’s exact progression of thought. (On the other hand,
be careful not to misrepresent ideas by omitting important aspects of the
author’s discussion).

5. In general, omit minor details and specific examples. (In some texts, an
extended example may be a key part of the argument, so you would want
to mention it).

6. Avoid writing opinions or personal responses in your summaries (save

these for active reading responses or tutorial discussions).

7. Be careful not to plagiarize the author’s words. If you do use even a few of
the author’s words, they must appear in quotation marks. To avoid
plagiarism, try writing the first draft of your summary without looking back
at the original text.

8. DON’T FORGET TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR SOURCE.

Paraphrasing
When you paraphrase, you restate someone else’s ideas in your own
words. A paraphrase may be longer than the original, it may be about the same
length, or it may be shorter. Whatever its length, a good paraphrase satisfies
three criteria:
1. It is clear, concise, and easy to understand.
2. It communicates the idea(s) of the original passage.
3. It doesn’t contain any idea(s) not found in the original passage.
To paraphrase a passage, you need to dig down through your source’s words to
the
underlying ideas and then reword those ideas as clearly and simply as you can.
First, paraphrasing improves your reading skill as well as your writing skill. Second,
it improves your memory. In order to paraphrase accurately, you must thoroughly
understand what you’ve read—and once you understand something, you’re not
likely to forget it.

Quoting
When learning to write research papers, students tend to use quotations
more often than paraphrases or summaries to introduce other writers’ ideas into
their own work. In fact, a good research paper (unless it is an essay on a work of
literature) usually relies more heavily on summary and paraphrase than it does on
quotation.
Occasionally, however, you will find that someone else—an expert in a
particular field, a well-known author, or a respected public figure—has said what
you want to say but eloquently, vividly, more memorably than you could ever
hope to say it. In such cases, quotations, as long as they are short and not used
too frequently, are useful in developing your topic.

You can quote from two kinds of sources and your quotation may be long or
short:
 people you know, or have heard speak, or have interviewed
 print, electronic, or recorded materials (e.g., books, articles, CD-ROMs, Web
sites, films, tapes)

Although you must quote exactly and never misrepresent or distort your
source’s intention, you may, for reasons of conciseness or smoothness, omit or
add a word or phrase or even a sentence or two.

 To leave out a word or words, indicate the omission by replacing the

word(s) you’ve omitted with three spaced dots called ellipses (. . .). If the
omission comes at the end of your sentence, add a fourth dot as the
period.
 If you need to add or change a word or words to make the quoted passage
more readable within your paragraph, use square brackets around your
own words, as we did when we added “[In addition to starch,]” in
 Ackerman’s second block quotation from Bodanis and “[Gradually,]” to
Fulford’s paragraph.
Another reason for changing words in a quoted passage is to keep the verb tenses consistent throughout your paragraph. If you are writing in
the present tense and the passage you are quoting is in the past tense, you can change the verbs to present tense (as long as the change
doesn’t distort the meaning) and put square brackets around them so the reader knows you have made these changes.