Academic Text

- Characterized by being formal, studied,

researched, objective, exact, direct, and
has the ability to influence its readers.
- Clear, concise, focused, structured, and
backed up by evidence.
- Linear (has one central point or theme). 4 Important Features of Language

Formality

Academic text should be: - Reflects your dignified stance in writing

as a academic community.
 Critical - Requires precision to make a legitimate
 Objective piece of writing.
 Specialized text written by professionals - Choosing expanded modal forms (Ex.
using formal language. Can’t -> cannot)
- Choosing one verb form (Ex. Mess up ->
damage)
Structure of Academic text - Choosing expanded terms over
abbreviated equivalents (Ex. ASAP -> as
 Three-part essay structure soon as possible)
- Introduction - Avoiding colloquial / idiomatic
- Body expressions.
- Conclusion
 IMRad structure Colloquialism
- Introduction
- The use of informal word, phrases, or
- Methods
even slang
- Results
- Colloquial expressions tend to sneak in
- Discussions
as writers, part of a society, influenced
by the people speak.

Factors to consider in writing Example:

 Topic Wanna – want to

 Role Gonna – going to
 Purpose
 Audience Y’all – you all

Be blue – to be sad

Academic writing process:

Know the topic -> read and Trite – something that is stale or overused or
research -> outline and plan cliché.
-> start your writing ->
Example:
review and edit -> know
the topic On speaking terms
Each and every - Academic writing cares since knowledge
is built from proven theories and
Last but not the least
concept.
- Prudent to be cautious in one’s
statement to distinguish between facts
Idiomatic expression – does not mean exactly and claims.
what the words say.
Caution need to be observed in the following
Example: parts of the paper:
“Stabbed in the back”  When a hypothesis needs to tested.
“Takes two to tango”  Drawing conclusions or predictions
from the findings
“Kill two bird with one stone”  Referencing others’ work to build own
paper.

Hedging

Objectivity - The use of linguistic devices to express

hesitation or uncertainty
- Academic writing must be impersonal
and maintains a certain level of social
distance Structure
- Avoiding personal pronouns such as
you, I and we. - Sentences need to be constructed to
- Avoiding rhetorical questions as it show a level of complexity that reflects
marks “closeness” the sophistication
- Avoiding emotional language that show
Three ways to achieve a structure fit for
biases (Ex. The investigators were very
academic writing
shocked to see the outcome of the
tests.)  Combining ideas effectively
 Nominalization
Explicitness
 Passivation
- Academic writing demands the use of
Combining ideas effectively
signposts that allows readers to trace
the relationship in the parts of a study. - Avoid redundancy
- Ideas are packed effectively
Phrases that may be useful in making ideas
explicit:

 This is due to the… Example

 This is resulted in…
The earthquake caused loss of life.
 To change the line of argument, make it
clear by using however. The earthquake caused massive property
damage.
Caution
The earthquake changed the landscape of the  Academic dishonesty and is frowned
village. upon in the academe.
 Copying of verbatim language and ideas
=
Two types
The earthquake was a disaster that caused loss
of life, property damage, and permanent  Plagiarism of ideas
changes in the landscape.  Plagiarism of language

Plagiarism of ideas
Nominalization - Occurs when credit for a work is
ascribed to oneself untruthfully.
- The conversion of a verb, adverb, and /
adjective into a noun. Proper Citation
- Verbs are made central as they denote
the action.  Author – oriented
- Transforming verbs into nouns  Text – oriented
- Focus on the action and not on the doer  Another way of citation is using the
of the action. phrase “According to…”

Example: Author – Oriented

- The president announced a three-day  Starts with Author’s surname, followed

holiday this September.
- The president’s announcement of a
three-day holiday for September was
released
Passivization
- Transformation of a sentence from an
active form to a passive form
- The direct object of an active
declarative sentence can become the
subject of a passive sentence.
by the year of publication in a
parenthesis
Text – Oriented
 Starts with paragraph or sentence from
a source, the Author’s surname and the
year of publication in parenthesis
Plagiarism of language
- An author uses the language of another
write and claims that it as his own..

Example: Text – Oriented

- Several scientists conducted types:

experiment to examine the effects of
 Word – for – word
algae on biodiversity.
 Patchwork
- An experiment was conducted to
examine the effect of algae on Note – taking techniques
biodiversity.
 Summarizing
 Using quotations
 Paraphrasing
Plagiarism
Summarizing
 - Short restatement of the main idea of a
text
- Highlight important details
- Get the main idea, then use your own
words to create a summary
- Recheck

Direct quotation

- Lift a text and enclose then in quotation

marks, with Author’s name and page
number.
- If the text is too long, omit some words
and replace them with ellipsis.
- Interpolation may be done
- Avoid making too many direct
quotations
- Should be 20% of the total length of
work

Paraphrasing

- Restatement in your own words of the

main idea and supporting details.
- Read the text then outline the ideas
- State the major and minor points
- Do not change the original intentions of
the author

Ways to paraphrase

 Literal – replacing the vocabulary terms

 Structural – changing the structure and
word class
 Alternative – answer the questions
found in the text using the your own
words

PARAPHRASE

P – ut the text in your own words

A – void copying the text

R – earrange similar text

A – sk yourself if you included all the important

point