EAPP notes (las 1)

3. ABSTRACTION (Discussion of the Topic)

Language Used in Academic Text from Various Disciplines

Writing is one of the Four Macro Skills that a student should possess. It is one of the media of
communication in order for us to pass information to people. One of these writings that a
student should know is Academic Writing. In this module you as a student will learn Academic
Writing and the language that should be used in writing academic text.
Let us define key terms you will meet in this discussion.
1.Academic Writing - is a kind of writing that can be used in
academia or school.
2. Subject – pertains to the topic of the text.
3. Tone – pertains to the attitude of the writer about the text. It can be distinguished through the
words used by the author.
4. Purpose – is information that an author wants to imply to the reader.
5. Language – are the words used by the author in writing an academic text, Academic writing
requires formal language.
6. Audience –pertains to the reader in writing.
7. Point of View – refers to how the writer tells the information in the reading text. An academic
text is always in the third person point of view.

3.ABSTRACTION( Discussion of the topic)

Persuasive
writing contains the author’s opinions and biases, as well as
justifications or reasons given by the author as evidence of the
correctness of their position. Any “argumentative” essay you write in
school should be in the persuasive style of writing. The examples of
persuasive writing include cover letters, op-eds and editorial
newspaper articles, reviews of items, letters of complaint,
advertisements, and letters of recommendation.
Narrative Writing
Narrative writing is used in almost every longer piece of writing,
whether fiction or non-fiction. When an author writes in a narrative
style, he/she is not just trying to convey information, rather tries to
construct and communicate a story, complete with characters,
conflict and settings. The examples of narrative writing include oral
histories, novels/novellas, poetry (specifically, epic sagas or poems),
short stories, and anecdotes.
3. ABSTRACTION ( Discussion of the topic)

4. Caution in academic writing requires care since knowledge is built on

proven theories and concepts. Caution is needed to avoid sweeping
generalizations.
Government officials are corrupt.
The statement is not completely true and the rhetorical impact of the
statement may be misleading. The statement can be improved through
the use of devices such as modal verbs, adverbs, or verbs.
Improved versions:
Some government officials may be corrupt. Corruption is commonly
linked to some key government officials.
Types of Writing Styles
There are four main types of writing: expository, descriptive, persuasive
and narrative.
Each of these writing styles is used for a specific purpose. A single text
may include more than one writing styles
Expository
This means that the author is trying to explain a concept, imparting
information to the audience. It is not subjective but rather focuses on
facts that are supported by evidence.
Examples of Expository Writing:
 textbooks
 articles
 recipes
 news stories (not editorials or op-eds)
 business, technical or scientific writing
Descriptive Writing
Descriptive style means painting a picture of a person, place, or thing
through words. It is often found in fiction, though it can make an
appearance to non-fiction as well Memoirs, first-hand accounts, and
events or travel guides are examples of descriptive writing. The author
might employ metaphor or other literary devices in order to describe the
author’s impressions using their five senses.
Persuasive Writing
It is the main style of writing you will use in academic papers. When an
author writes in a persuasive style, he/she is trying to convince the
audience of a position or belief.
3. ABSTRACTION ( Discussion of the topic)

8.Style – refers to how the author arranges his or her writing.

9. Knowledge – is the amount of information that an author knows about
his or her topic. The reader is the one who can distinguish how much
knowledge an author has in the topic he or she is writing.
10. Explicit – means that the information should be precise and clear.

Academic Writing
Academic Writing is a kind of writing that can be used in academia or
school. It has a process that starts with posing a question,
conceptualizing a problem, evaluating an opinion and ends in answering
a question posed, clarifying a problem or arguing for a stand. The specific
purposes of academic writing are to inform, to persuade and to argue that
address specific audience or the teacher. To inform means supplementing
a lot of information about the topic. To Persuade means having the
credibility to make your audience or readers believe in you. To argue
means making your readers or audience respond on the information you
are telling them.
Academic writing also requires formal language or word that does not
contain colloquial or jargon words. It usually uses layman’s term or the
term that is easy to understand. It avoids the use of hifalutin words or
words that have deep meaning.
Academic writing is all about thinking:
 It follows certain rules and standards.
 Language to be used in writing academic text should be formal.
 Audience should be first taken into consideration.

All the information included in this kind of text should be backed up by

valid evidence.
Four Features of Language
1. Formality reflects your dignified stance in writing as a member of an
academic community. This means that in your writing, you should avoid
colloquial words and expressions.
- The language use requires precision to make it a legitimate piece of
writing.
3. Discussion of the Topic: (ABSTRACTION)

Formality can be achieved through the following ways:

• Choosing expanded modal forms over contracted forms, such as using
cannot instead of can’t, do not instead of don’t.
• Choosing one verb form over two-word verbs, such as damage instead of
mess up.
• Choosing expanded terms over their abbreviated equivalents, such as
as soon as possible instead of ASAP.
• Avoiding colloquial/idiomatic expressions, such as kind of like, as a
matter of fact, sort of.
Other Examples:
• Calculate - James added up the number of attendees in his party.
• Purchase (someone’s assets) - The large company bought out the
smaller ones.
• Cancel - The teacher was to call off the noisy students immediately.
• Continue - The meeting will carry on even without your presence.
• Discover - The purpose of this meeting is to find out what would be your
idea about our new project.
2. Objectivity means that the focus of the information is on the topic
rather on the writer itself. Written language should not be personal but
rather in general objective.
It can be achieved by:
a. Avoiding the use of personal pronouns such as you, I, my, and we.
Poor example: You need to follow instructions.
Improved version: The researchers need to follow instructions.
b. Avoiding rhetorical questions because academic writing should not
assume that the readers know the answer in the statement and the
author should express the information strongly and clearly.
Poor example: How can these problems be solved?
Improved version: Certain procedures must be discovered to solve
problems.
c. Avoiding emotive language that shows biases. Giving an overly
favorable opinion of someone can eliminate objectivity.
Poor example: The police investigators were shocked to see the outcome
of the tests.
Improved version: The police investigators did not expect the results.
(las 2)
Text Structure
Every student should understand that a text should present its details and main ideas. Text structure
helps them to organize a written text, giving its cause and effect, or its different views. Text structure refers
to organization of information in a passage.

Common Types of Text Structure:

Spatial or Description gives a reader a detailed feature that creates a picture on his/her mind about a
topic.

Spatial organization is when information in a passage is organized in order of space or location.

Spatial organization can also be called as descriptive writing. If you are about to describe how something
looks, you are describing it spatially. It can also be used in fiction and non-fiction. Even if narration style of
writing is usually arranged chronologically, if the author is describing a setting of a certain scene, the author
is describing it spatially.

Example: Volcanoes can be a source of fear and destruction. Even though volcanoes are like pressure valve
in the inner earth, they are very beautiful sights. One of the parts of the volcanoes that cannot be seen all the
time is its magma chamber. It is beneath the earth’s bedrock and is very hot. Conduit is the one that runs
from the magma chamber to the crater, which can be seen at the top of
the volcano. The crater is where the magma exits. Volcanoes are very scenic yet very dangerous.

Cause and Effect presents the relationship between specific events, ideas, or concepts
Cause and effect is one way of organizing information in a text. It explains reasons why something
happened. It can be ordered as cause to effect or vice versa. It is generally used in expository and persuasive
writing modes. It can be cause to effect wherein it explains why something happened and the effect of it. It
can be also effect to cause wherein it explains the result of things that happened and its reasons. This
structure is commonly used, most of the time writers do not notice that they use this kind of text structure.

Example: Many people think that they can acquire illness by going into cold weather improperly dressed.
However, illnesses are not caused by temperature. They are caused by germs. So, trembling outside in the
cold probably won’t strengthen your immune system, but you are more likely to acquire illness outdoors
because you will greatly be exposed to germs. In the previous example, the paragraph explains how germs
cause illnesses. The germs are the cause in the paragraph and the illness is the effect.

Here is another example of a paragraph that is written using the cause and effect text structure:

Another Example: Students are prohibited to chew gum in my class. While other students think that I am
just being mean, I have a lot of good reasons for this rule. First, there are some irresponsible students who
can make messes with their gums. Students may leave them on the bottoms of desks, drop them on the floor,
or put them on other people’s property. Another reason why I don’t allow students to chew gum is because it
can be a source of distraction while listening, reading, writing and learning. When they are allowed to chew
gum, students are more worried about having it, popping it, chewing it, and snapping it. This is why I don’t
allow students to chew gum in my class.
Discussion of the Topic: (ABSTRACTION)
 Identifying a text written using the cause and effect pattern of organization can be tricky. Though
stories are arranged chronologically, Cause and Effect pattern is only organized by the time an event
happened that has causal relationship. Contrarily, cause and effect passages usually focus on explaining the
reason why something occurs or occurred.

These are the signal words that may indicate that information in a paragraph is organized as cause
and effect: because, as a result, resulted, caused, affected, since, due to, effect.

Comparison and Contrast gives the similarities and differences between two or more people, events,
concepts, ideas, and the like.

Comparison and Contrast is a text structure or pattern of organization that discusses similarities and
differences. You should bear in mind that this kind of structure should discuss both comparing (similarities)
and contrasting (differences). If you will only discuss comparing and not contrasting, it cannot be called as
comparing and contrasting but comparing alone and vice versa.

This pattern is generally easy to recognize. Writer who is comparing and contrasting will bounce
back and forth between two subjects. Here are some signal words that may indicate that the text is written
using the compare and contrast organizational pattern: like, unlike, both, neither, similar, and different

Example: Mangoes and durians are both fruits. They both have seeds inside of them. Each has a skin, but
durian skins are thick and difficult to peel. Mango skins are thinner and peel easily. Durians have distinct
stench while mangoes have sweet smell, but both fruits are delicious.

Chronological Order
Chronological order explains a text by the time an event occurs. Chrono means time and logic means
order. The events occur along a timeline even if the author uses flashbacks, or flash forwards. All stories are
organized chronologically, therefore, every story has a beginning, middle, and end. Non-fiction stories
organized chronologically usually contain dates while fiction passages or narratives usually have no dates. A
narrative or story is a journey through time, and all of the events are arranged in order of time. Stories
require the passage of time. Sometimes, time will stop in a narrative. Certain passages in a story may focus
on describing scenery or spaces, and use a descriptive or spatial method of organization. The conflict of a
story may be discussed in terms of problem and solution or cause and effect, but the text in a story is still
mainly organized chronologically.

Example: This morning was pretty crazy. I woke up really late because of wrong setting of my alarm. It was
set PM instead of AM. I just wore any clothes and ran out the door. I rode my bike as fast as I could with the
thought that I was going to be late for sure, but when I got there everyone was outside and there were fire
trucks all lined up in front of school. I guess somebody pulled the fire alarm before class started. It worked
out though, because nobody really noticed or minded that I was tardy.

Problem-Solution mentions a problem or problems, identifies some possible solutions and discusses
the effect of the solution. Problem – Solution is a pattern of organization that explains a problem or issue
and an attempted solution in the issue. This type of text is usually interchanged with cause and effect type of
structure but the only thing that they should remember is that cause and effect text structure do not offer a
solution. This mentions a problem and then offers a solution plus the possible effect of a solution.

Example: Bullying has been prevalent these days. These encounters make it hard for children to develop
confidence and high self-esteem. Fortunately, bullying has been noticed and is being addressed by many
sectors of the community. However, these efforts are not enough. The most effective way to stop bullying is
by nurturing and inculcating good manners and right conduct within families.