Introduction to Academic

Writing Continued
Lesson 2: RW
What does “Positioning” mean to you?
We will come back to these;
problems with Moodle
Audience

Presentation Purpose

Flow Organization

Style
Audience
• What did you notice when you completed Task 4?
• Which audience was it easier to write for and why?
Organization & Expectations of Structure
• Fulfilling Expectations

Complete:
Task 10 (pg. 16)
in groups

• Creating Reader-Friendly text

• Related to Style & even culture
• Read quotes on culture & writing
 Stylistic Choices
Positioning yourself through sentence-level choices in your writing.
Where does your discipline stand on these issues (see pg 27 for list)?
AWGS, pgs. 17-25
Stylistic Analysis
 Quite Common
Nominalizations
Compare:
Organisms reproduce. This is a major characteristic of life.
To:
Reproduction is a major characteristic of life.

Which sounds more formal?

More academic?
More concise?
 Quite Common
What is a nominalization?
Simply,
Changing a verb or other word into a noun.

In academic writing,
we use them to be concise, to be objective, and to
pack more meaning into a shorter amount of
space.
 Quite Common
Example:
Language

The language of scientific communication

The international language of scientific communication

English as the international language of scientific communication

The emergence of English as the international language of scientific

communication
 Quite Common
What nominalizations allow you to do:
Thus, it is possible to write more concise sentences:

The emergence of English as the international language of

scientific communication has been widely documented.

as opposed to

English has emerged as the international language of scientific

communication. This phenomenon has been widely
documented.
 Quite Common
Identify the Nominalizations
• Looking at the sentences in the right hand column,
identify the nominalizations.
Original Nominalized
The scientist introduced his speech with a The introduction of the scientist’s speech with a
specific example. This made the audience specific example gained the audience’s attention.
more attentive.
The main character in the novel was an honest The main character’s honesty was his outstanding
man. This was his outstanding trait. trait.
The scientist mixed these two chemicals to The creation of this compound was the result of
create a compound. mixing these two chemicals.
 Quite Common
Titles are often Nominalizations
• Analysis of Differences in Attitude, Motivation, and Work Commitment between Senior and Junior
Teachers at Upgrade State Vocational School in South Sulawesi [Education Journal]
• Performance Analysis of Tree Seed Algorithm for Small Dimension Optimization Functions [Computer &
Electrical Engineering Journal]
• Effects of roasting on bioavailability and bioactivities of Vigna angularis and potential of coffee-like
beverage [Food Science Journal]
• Electronic Inspirations: Technologies of the Cold War Musical Avant-Garde [Music Journal]
• Functional Status in Older Persons after Hip Fracture Surgery: A Longitudinal Study of Indonesian
Patients [Nursing Journal]
• Effect of cactus pear as a moistening additive in the production of rehydrated corn grain silage
[Agricultural Journal]
• Moral reasoning, moral decision-making, and empathy in Korsakoff’s syndrome [Neuropsychology
Journal]
• Global regularity estimates for the Boltzmann equation without cut-off [Math Journal]
• Diversity, Inclusion, and “Othering”: Methodologies for Comparative Literature [Comparative Literature
Journal]
 Quite Common
How to build a nominalization?
• Change Verbs or Adjectives into Nouns
• See example on the handout.
• Practice Handout
• Arrange the words you want to express around the NOUN
using Prepositions (of, for, with, etc.) or and:
• Measure  Measurement
• …the measurement of the specimen….
• Practice Handout
• Combine sentences to be more concise by including
nominalizations.
• Practice Handout
You can also insert clauses into
Nominalizations

Refuse  refusal
The corporation’s refusal to comply with the policy….

…was a substantial oversight.

…resulted in fiscal problems for the next decade.
Please stop here (more on stylistic
variation next week)
For MONDAY:
• Complete Task titled, “Examining Nominalizations”

By next WEDNESDAY:
• Complete Task on Moodle titled, “Journal Article
Titles”
Stylistic Choices Continued
Positioning yourself through sentence-level choices in your writing.
Where does your discipline stand on these issues (13 in total)?
AWGS, pgs. 17-25
Stylistic Analysis
 Quite UNcommon
Non-academic/Empty & Vague language
• One thing we might consider is that many networks have
problems.
• We are doing a study with a lot of participants.
• Smith (1967) was a very important study.

Possible Non-academic Words to Avoid

Big A lot Do Make Get, got, gotten Enough

Very Often Thing Important Small About

(quantity)
Good Hard Difficult Many Some Nice
 Quite UNcommon
Non-academic/Empty & Vague language

Task 13 (pg. 21)

Opt for academic vocabulary:

see AWL on Moodle
 Varies
First Person (I/We/My/Our)
• In this paper, I argue that ….

• To our knowledge, there is currently no research

examining the role of X in the processing of Y.

• My argument is that Grice’s approach to analyzing

inherent structure is flawed.
 Quite UNcommon
Contractions
• Do not  Don’t
• Won’t
• Shouldn’t
• Couldn’t
• Etc…..
 Varies
Formal Negatives
• Not…any vs. no
• The experiment did not yield any output.
• The experiment yielded no output.
• Not…much vs. little
• The researcher did not allow much room for error.
• The researcher allowed little room for error.
• Not…many vs. few Let’s try to
• The equation does not have many solutions. replace informal
• The equation has few solutions. negatives with
formal negatives
 Varies
Expressions to indicate more
• This pedagogical approach can be applied in various
contexts, such as elementary schools, high schools,
vocational schools, etc.
• Et al. (and others)
• And so forth.
• Cf. (compare to) You can often find this guidance in
your discipline specific style guide:
MLA, APA, IEEE, Harvard, Chicago,
CSE, ASE, etc…
 Quite Common
Indirect Questions (embedded)

Why was the protocol unsuccessful?

The study examined why the protocol was unsuccessful.

Adverb Placement
(mid-position & split infinitives)
• Adverbs: words that describe verbs (commonly -ly) Quite Common

Mid-position
The model was developed originally by the Sykes foundation.
The model was originally developed by the Sykes foundation.

Split-infinitives Varies
The program needs to adequately address the concerns raised by the council.
The program needs to address the concerns raised by the council adequately.
The program needs to address adequately the concerns raised by the council.
 Varies
Wordiness
• It is our considered recommendation that…
• We recommend that…

• The location of the experimental robotics lab is in room

212A.
• The experimental robotics lab is in 212A.

• The protocol was changed in view of the fact that…

• The protocol was changed because…
 Varies
Single Verbs > Phrasal Verbs
• The new process will be looked into as soon as phase one is
complete.
• The new process will be examined as soon as phase one is
complete.

• Figure out
• Keep up
• Call off Task 11/12 (pg. 18)
in pairs

• (https://www.scribbr.com/academic-writing/47-phrasal-verbs-
and-their-one-word-substitutions/)
 Quite Uncommon
Second Person (You)
• As you can see in figure 2, the results indicate….
• As can be seen in figure 2,…
 Varies
Active & Passive Voice
• We prepared the solution…
• The solution was prepared (by us)…

FORM: Active Verb: Subject, Tense + Verb, Object

FORM: Passive Verb:

Object (promoted to subject), Tense + Be + Past Participle (-en,-ed,
irregular) + optional By-phrase of the Subject
 Varies
Hedging
• Softening a claim, point, statement, result, etc. by using
tentative language.

• The results PROVE that… (unusual)

• The results suggest that…

• The results may indicate that…
• The results appear to demonstrate that...
• The results seem to indicate that…
In class, if time… or Wednesday

Task 14 (pg 26) on

Moodle

Pick two of the six sentences and revise them using the
information about stylistic features of academic texts.
Discipline-specific Textual Analysis
• Examine the six texts that you found for the stylistic
features reviewed.

• Download the excel sheet from Moodle and fill it in

based on the findings of your analysis.

• Upload your final analysis to the Moodle Assignment,

due next Wednesday (2/16).
Next class…
More on positioning:
• Flow & Presentation