ACADEMIC READING & WRITING (COURSE UB00402)

LESSON ONE

WHAT ARE THE KEY FEATURES OF ACADEMIC WRITING?

The following are the key features of academic writing or style:

1) Academic texts contain specialized vocabulary specific to the field of study.

2) The academic written style tends to be formal.

3) Contractions are not used (e.g. can’t, don’t, won’t).

4) Questions in academic texts are indirect.

A question mark is not used in an indirect question.

Use 'if' or 'whether' in indirect questions if there is no question word.

Example direct question: Is the proposed solution in the research effective?

Example indirect question: The research aims to find out if the proposed solution
is effective.

5) Academic style is impersonal, so pronouns such as I, we, our seldom appear.

6) Authors whose work is mentioned or cited are referred to using strict conventions
of writing citations and references (e.g. APA conventions for writing
citations/references).

7) Ideas are expressed with caution (e.g. use of maybe, possibly, could be).

8) Connections between ideas are explicit (e.g. therefore, for example, however).

9) People, ideas, events are referred to quite specifically using noun phrases.

Examples:

The government is introducing new tax rules that should help those on low incomes
The introduction of new tax rules should help those on low incomes
Example noun phrase: demographic internet penetration
10) Main content and complexity are found in long noun phrases and not verbs.

Look at the following:

1. This ICOSA website is modern. It is interactive. It can be accessed by Hong Kong

tertiary learners. The tertiary learners are interested in English independent
learning.

This piece of writing does not ‘flow’ well. This is called ‘choppy’ writing because it
contains several short, simple SVO (subject + verb + object) sentences, making it
uncomfortable for the reader. This is a very basic and inefficient way of writing.

Now read this and compare sentence 1 and sentence 2:

(Noun Phrase) (Verb) (Noun Phrase)
2. This modern and interactive ICOSA website can be accessed by Hong Kong tertiary learners
interested in English independent learning.

This one sentence uses two noun phrases (in red colour). It contains exactly the
same information as in the first example, but flows much better. It is the noun
phrases which make the writing more efficient and reader-friendly. Notice that
noun phrases may appear on either or both sides of the verb.

11) Sentences can be quite simple in structure.