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ACADEMIC WRITING
ACR50US
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF
MANAGEMET
Features of Academic Texts
Purpose of Academic Writing
• Why you need to learn academic writing
As a student most of your life in university will be
spent reading what scholars in your area of study
have written. These scholars write in ways
acceptable to their discipline. As a student you
will have to learn how to write in ways acceptable
to the community of scholars in your discipline
called the discourse community.
• What is academic writing
 Academic writing is writing that creates or
analyses knowledge. While writing might seem
challenging at first, you will get better at it with
practice.
 What all this entails is for you to change your
personal style of writing to a more formal one
that is more aligned to the formal rules of the
academic community of scholars in your field.
 Your writing must incorporate the writings of
scholars and at the same time the reader must
‘hear’ your voice amongst the voices of other
scholars.
What is academic literacy
 Academic literacy entails that as a student you
operate in the way an academic does, going
through your studies in the manner that
academics approach subject content.
 According to Balfour, Mitchell, Nchindila,
Seligmann and Shober (2014), as a student, you
must be able to:
Read academic material with a deep level of
understanding.
Organise your thoughts into an essay.
Reference the sources you have cited.
Answer any examination questions accurately and
completely.
Characteristics of Academic Writing
 How do you see that this is academic writing when

you come across it? We can tell academic writing by
its style.
Defining characteristics of academic writing
Formality
Objectivity
Tentativeness
Acknowledgement
Clarity
(FORMALITY)
Academic writing
A formal style is used in academic writing.
Full forms are preferred to short
forms- e.g. do not as opposed to don’t.
More formal, abstract words are often preferred,
e.g. conduct, discover, and investigate. In bad
academic writing, such words can be used merely
to impress or bewilder the reader, rather than to
express precisely what is meant.
(FORMALITY)
Non-academic writing
A less formal style is used in non-academic writing
Short forms and contractions are often used, e.g.
I’d, won’t
Shorter, less formal, more colloquial words &
phrases are often used- e.g. carry out, find out,
look into, Ok, pretty much.
Non-academic writing often contains idioms,
images, slang and colloquialisms.
(FORMALITY)
Activity 1 on Formality
Which of the following illustrate slang, generalisation,
cliché/overused phrases and sarcasm? Explain your answer.
 Dumping nuclear waste in the karoo – best idea ever –
always wanted to see a meerkat with three heads.
 For this to work big businesses must come to the party.
 He is an awesome, cool, dude.
 At the end of the day, students must make it their priority
to pass English courses.
(FORMALITY)
Activity 2 on Formality
Identify the Informal words in the following sentences. Rewrite the
sentences, replacing the informal expressions with a more formal
equivalent.
 Modern houses have so many labour-saving things that it is
difficult for the person at home to have adequate exercise by doing
chores, cooking, and looking after a family.
 Simply making the effort to reclaim this wasted stuff for fertilizer
would have a positive effect on greenhouse releases.
 Effective vaccines prevent such hazards, but only if a social
organisation makes sure that all potential mothers are vaccinated in
good time.
(Objectivity)
Academic writing
“Objectivity refers to a deliberate distance between yourself as a writer and
the subject matter of your assignment” (Osmond, 2013, p.12). The academic
writer tries not to let his personal feelings and opinions intrude too much into
the writing; facts and evidence speak instead. The focus is on the text.
Personal pronouns such as ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘ours’ ‘my ‘are generally
avoided. They give the impression that the writer is less serious about his
subject matter. So pronouns like ‘it’ ‘one’ and ‘there’ are used instead e.g.
The main focus of this study was on reading.
In addition to avoiding the 1st person, also avoid writing in the 2nd person i.e.
using the pronouns ‘you,’ ‘your’ and ‘yours’
The passive form of speech is preferred e.g. Sufficient correlation was not
found between the two.
(Objectivity)
The non-academic writer usually writes from a very
personal point of view.
Personal pronouns are often used and personal views
expressed e.g. In my research I focused on reading.
Both 1st and 2nd person pronouns are commonly used
in everyday spoken (i.e. colloquial) situations.
The active form is often used e.g. We didn’t find
enough correlation between the two.
(Objectivity)
Activity on Objectivity
• In academic writing, the passive form is preferred over the active form. Rewrite the following
sentences and instead of using 'people', 'somebody', 'they' etc. write a passive sentence with an
appropriate verb form.
Example: We can solve the problem.
The problem can be solved.
1. Someone explained the procedure to me.
2. People are destroying large areas of forest every day.
3. Somebody has bought the land next to the university.
4. I hope they will have completed all the marking by tomorrow.
5. People expect better results soon.
6. Students should channel their complaints to the head of department.
7. They are going to hold next year's conference in Birmingham.
8. Everyone knows this fact very well.
9. They opened the new lecture theatre only last month.
10.You must write the answers on the examination paper in black ink.
(Tentativeness)
Academic writing
 The academic writer is cautious about making very definite or categorical
statements, or arriving at conclusions too hastily.
 The truth is complex and new facts of it are being uncovered all the time. There
are few things we can be completely sure of, but we can say what seems to be
true, judging from evidence available at the present moment.
1. The following verbs all indicate tentativeness: seems to, appears to, likely to,
tends to, may or might, could, would, possibly, probably.
2. Adverbial and adjectival qualifiers such as apparently, seemingly, probably,
maybe, perhaps, generally, often, on the whole, indicate tentativeness.
Example
Consider this example taken from Balfour et al. (2014).
Research shows that excessive sugar consumption seems to be linked to the onset of
type 2 diabetes.
(Tentativeness)
 The non-academic writer, speaking from a personal
viewpoint, is often very sure of himself/ herself, and
may make wild generalizations and sweeping statements
or draw conclusions from insufficient evidence.
Example
The example given in the previous slide would read as
follows:
• Everybody knows that sugar consumption causes
diabetes.
(Tentativeness)
Activity on Tentativeness
Identify the hedging expressions in the following sentences.
1. It is possible to see that in January this person weighed 60.8 kg for eight days,
2. It may be necessary for the spider to leave the branch on which it is standing,
climb up the stem, and walk out along another branch.
3. There is experimental work to show that a week or ten days may not be long
enough and a fortnight to three weeks is probably the best theoretical period.
4. Conceivably, different forms, changing at different rates and showing
contrasting combinations of characteristics, were present in different areas.
5. One possibility is that generalized latent inhibition is likely to be weaker than
that produced by pre-exposure to the CS itself and thus is more likely to be
susceptible to the effect of the long interval.
(Acknowledgements or
Referencing)
Academic writing
 Academic writers always rely on the opinions
of other writers and these opinions must be
properly acknowledged using standard
conventions of referencing such as A.P.A.
 Acknowledgement is done in-text (in-text
citation) and on a separate page at the end of
your essay (reference list).
(Acknowledgements or
Referencing)
 The non-academic writer is not obliged to
include citations of borrowed information.
(Clarity)
Academic writing
 Osmond (2013, p. 127) defines clarity as “doing your best to
make sure that your readers have the best possible chance to
understand your points.”
 This simply means that academic writers use unambiguous
language that does not confuse.
 The belief that when you write your essay you must use difficult
words is incorrect.
 This is often a cover for one’s failure to understand the question.
 So the style of writing must be clear, straightforward and easily
understood.
(Clarity)
 The non-academic writer may resort to more
colourful language often showing off his/her
educated style of writing.
(Clarity)
Activity on Clarity – doing away with redundant phrases:
Below are commonly used phrases that can easily be replaced by one word.
Write the word that can replace each phrase next to it.
1. At this moment ____________
2. In order to _____________
3. Due to the fact that ____________
4. In this particular place_____________
5. Take into consideration _____________
6. In the event that _____________
7. A short summary _____________
8. A new innovation _____________
9. Very unique _____________
10.Three in number _____________
(Accuracy)
 When using English for academic purposes it
is important to be accurate writing.
 It is, however, very difficult to produce
language which is intelligent, appropriate and
accurate at the same time.
 It is therefore important to break down the task
into stages: an ideas stage and an accuracy
stage.
(Accuracy)
Writing
 When you are writing, you need to rewrite and edit your work carefully.
 In Writing and the writer, Frank Smith distinguishes between composition and
transcription in writing.
 Composition is deciding what you want to say.
 Transcription is what you have to do to say it.
 Composition and transcription must be separated, and transcription must come last.
 It is asking too much of anyone, and especially of students trying to improve all
aspects of their writing ability, to expect that they can concern themselves with
polished transcription at the same time that they are trying to compose.
 The effort to concentrate on spelling, handwriting, and punctuation at the same time
that one is struggling with ideas and their expression not only interferes with
composition but creates the least favourable situation in which to develop
transcription skills as well.
Academic mechanics and conventions
Cohesive devices (Discourse markers/Signal words)
• Cohesion means linking phrases together so that the
whole text is clear and readable.
• It is achieved by several methods:
 such as the use of conjunctions.
 Another is the linking of phrases and sentences with
words like he, they and that which refer back to
something mentioned before:
Jane Austen wrote six major novels in her short life. They
deal with domestic drama in middle-class families.
Cohesive devices (Discourse
markers/Signal words)
Reference words
• Are used to avoid repetition:
Leonardo da Vinci was a fifteenth-century Italian
genius who produced only a handful of finished
works. However, they include the Mona Lisa and
the Last Supper, the former perhaps the most
famous painting in the world. Although he is
remembered mainly as an artist, he also was an
innovative engineer, scientist and anatomist.
Here the reference words function as follows:
Leonardo da Vinci finished works Mona
Lisa
he they the
former
Examples of reference words and phrases
• Pronouns: he/she/it/they
• Possessive pronouns: his/her/hers/their/theirs
• Objective pronouns: her/him/them
• Demonstrative pronoun: this/that/these/those
• Other phrases: the former/the latter/the
first/the second
Preventing confusion
• To avoid confusing the reader it is important to use reference words
only when the reference is clear. For example:
Pablo Picasso moved to Paris in 1904 and worked with George
Braque from 1908 to 1909. He became interested in the analysis of
form, which led to cubism.
• In this case it is not clear which person (Picasso or Braque) ‘he’
refers to.
• So to avoid this write:
Pablo Picasso moved to Paris in 1904 and worked with George
Braque from 1908 to 1909. Picasso became interested in the analysis
of form, which led to cubism.
Activities
1. Read the following paragraph and fill in the missing
words on the next slide.
La Ferrera (1997) has researched the life cycle of new
businesses. She found that they have an average life of
only 4.7 years. This is due to two main reasons; one
economic and one social. The former appears to be a
lack of capital, the latter a failure to carry out sufficient
market research. La Ferrera considers that together these
account for approximately 70 per cent of business failures.
Reference Reference word/
phrase
La Ferrera She
new businesses ____________
average life of only 4.7 years ____________
one economic ____________
one social ____________
the former. . ., the latter. . . ____________
markers/Signal words): ACTIVITIES
2. In the following paragraph, insert suitable reference words from the word
below in the gaps (more words than gaps).
he / he / his / his / his / it / them / they / this
When Andy Warhol died at the age of 58 in 1987 few people guessed that
(a)____would soon become one of the most valuable artists in the world. In
2007 total sales of (b)____work at auction reached 428 million dollars. When,
a year later, (c)____painting ‘Eight Elvises’ sold for over $100 million,
(d)____was one of the highest prices ever paid for a work of art. In
(e)____working life (f)____ made about 10,000 artworks, and dealers believe
that (g)____will continue to be popular with collectors in future. (h)____is
because of Warhol’s huge reputation as a super-cool trendsetter and innovator.
Sequence/Temporal
• These transition terms and phrases organize your
paper by numerical sequence:
– by showing continuation in thought or action;
– by referring to previously-mentioned information;
– by indicating digressions; and, finally,
– by concluding and summing up your paper.
• Sequential transitions are essential to creating
structure and helping the reader understand the
logical development through your paper’s
methods, results, and analysis.
Sequence/Temporal
Common Common Examples in Research
Purpose
Terms Phrases Writing
Initially; First of all; To “Initially, subjects were asked to
Organizing Secondly; start with; In the write their names.”“First of
by Number Thirdly; (first/second/thir all, dolphins are the smartest
(First/Second/ d) place creatures in the sea.”
Third); Last
Subsequently;
Previously; “Subsequently, subjects were
Showing Afterwards; taken to their
Continuation Eventually; rooms.”“Afterwards, they were
Next; After asked about their experiences.”
(this)
To repeat; As “Summarizing this data, it
Summarizing (Once) again; (was) stated becomes evident that there is a
/ Repeating Summarizing before; As (was) pattern.”“As mentioned
Information (this) mentioned earlier, pollution has become an
earlier/above increasing problem.”
Sequence/Temporal
Common Common Examples in Research
Purpose
Terms Phrases Writing
By the way; to “Coincidentally, the methods used in
Incidentally;
Digression/ resume; Returning to the two studies were similar.”
Coincidentally;
Resumption Anyway the subject; At any “Returning to the subject, this section
rate will analyze the results.”
Thus; Hence;
Ultimately; To conclude; As a
“Ultimately, these results will be
Concluding/ Finally; final point; In valuable to the study of X.”“In
Therefore; conclusion; Given
Summarizing conclusion, there are three things to
Altogether; these points; In keep in mind—A, B, and C.”
Overall; summary; To sum up
Consequently
Cause and Effect /Causal
• Academic work frequently involves
demonstrating a link between a cause, such as
a cold winter, and an effect, such as an
increase in illness.
• This unit explains two methods of describing
the link, with the focus either on the cause or
on the effect.
The language of cause and effect
• A writer may choose to put the emphasis on
either the cause or the effect.
• In both cases, either a verb or a conjunction
can be used to show the link.
Focus on causes
• With verbs
The heavy rain caused the flood
created
led to
resulted in
Produced
• With conjunctions
Because of the heavy rain there was a flood
Due to
Owing to
As a result of
Focus on effects
• With verbs
The flood was caused by the heavy rain
was produced by
resulted from
(note use of passives)
• With conjunctions
There was a flood due to the heavy rain
because of
as a result of
• Compare the following:
Because children were vaccinated diseases declined
(because + verb)
Because of the vaccination diseases declined
(because of + noun)
As/ since children were vaccinated diseases declined
(conjunction + verb)
Owing to/ due to the vaccination diseases declined
(conjunction + noun)
• Conjunctions are commonly used with specific
situations, while verbs tend to be used in
general cases:
 Printing money commonly leads to inflation.
(general)
 Due to December’s hot weather demand for
ice cream increased. (specific)
(ACTIVITY)
Match the causes with their likely effects and write sentences linking them together.
Causes Effects
Cold winter of 1995 more tourists arriving
Higher rates of literacy a new government being formed
Constructing an airport reduced infant mortality
Last year’s national election greater demand for secondary

education
Installing speed cameras on increased demand for

main roads electricity
Opening a new hospital in 2006 a fall in the number of fatal accidents

Compare and Contrast/Adversative
• It is often necessary to make comparisons in
academic writing.
• The comparison might be the subject of the essay,
or might provide evidence for the argument.
• In all cases it is important to explain clearly what
is being compared and to make the comparison as
accurate as possible.
• This unit deals with different forms of
comparison and practises their use.
Comparison structures
• Some studies are based on a comparison:
The purpose of this study is to compare Chinese and
American consumers on their propensity to use self-
service technology in a retail setting . . .
• In other cases a comparison provides useful
context:
The first attempt to decode the human genome took
10 years; now it can be done in less than a week.
The two basic comparative forms are:
(i) France is larger than Switzerland.
The students were happier after the exam.
(-er is added to one-syllable adjectives and two-syllable
adjectives ending in -y, which changes into an i )
(ii) Learning Chinese is more difficult than learning
English.
(more . . . is used with other adjectives of two or more
syllables)
These comparisons can be modified by the use
of adverbs such as
slightly, considerably, significantly and
substantially:
 France is substantially larger than Switzerland.
 Switzerland is slightly smaller than Holland.
 Winters in Poland are significantly colder than
in Portugal.
Similarity can be noted by the use of as . . . as or
the same as:
The population of France is the same as the
population of Britain.
Summers in Tokyo are as wet as in Singapore.
This form can be used for quantitative
comparison:
Britain is half as large as France. (also twice as
large as, ten times as fast as)
Using superlatives (e.g. the largest/smallest)
When using superlatives take care to define the group, e.g.
‘the cheapest car’ has no meaning:
the cheapest car in the Ford range/ the fastest car in the
USA
the most/ the least are followed by an adjective:
The most interesting example is Ireland . . .
the most/ the fewest are used in relation to numbers:
the fewest students studied biogenetics (i.e. the lowest
number)
ACTIVITY
Study the information provided below, which shows the income of the top ten clubs in world
football. Then read the comparisons on the next slide. Each sentence contains one error. Find
and correct it.
Club Revenue € m. 2007–8

Real Madrid 366
Manchester United 310
FC Barcelona 304
Bayern Munich 295
Chelsea 270
Arsenal 265
Liverpool 210
AC Milan 205
AS Roma 180
Internazionale 175
ACTIVITY
a) Real Madrid was the richest club.
b) Real Madrid’s income was twice much as AS
Roma’s.
c) FC Barcelona earned significantly less than
Manchester United.
d) Internazionale had less revenue AC Milan.
e) Liverpool’s income was slightly lower than
AC Milan’s.
Problem/Solution
• Writing tasks frequently ask students to
examine a problem and evaluate a range of
solutions.
• This unit explains ways in which this kind of
text can be organised.
Problem/Solution
Structure
Study the organisation of the following paragraph:
HOW CAN ROAD CONGESTION BE REDUCED?

Currently, roads are often congested, which is expensive in
terms of delays to the movement of people and freight. It is
commonly suggested that building more roads, or widening
existing ones, would ease the traffic jams. But not only is the
cost of such work high, but the construction process adds to
the congestion, while the resulting extra road space may
encourage extra traffic. Therefore constructing more roads is
unlikely to solve the problem, and other remedies, such as
road pricing or greater use of public transport, should be
examined.
Problem/Solution
Problem Currently, roads are often
congested, which is . . .
Solution A It is commonly suggested that

building more roads, or
widening . . .
Arguments But not only is the cost of

against solution A such work high, but . . .
Solutions B and C . . . other remedies, such as road

pricing or greater use . . .
Problem/Solution
Alternative structure
The same ideas could be re-ordered to arrive at a different conclusion:
HOW CAN ROAD CONGESTION BE REDUCED?

Currently, roads are often congested, which is expensive in terms of
delays to the movement of people and freight. It is commonly suggested
that building more roads, or widening existing ones, would ease the
traffic jams. This remedy is criticised for being expensive and liable to
lead to more road use, which may be partly true, yet the alternatives are
equally problematic. Road pricing has many practical difficulties, while
people are reluctant to use public transport. There is little alternative to a
road building programme except increasing road chaos.
Problem/Solution
Problem Currently, roads are often congested, which is . . .
Solution A It is commonly suggested that building more roads,

or widening . . .
Arguments against This remedy is criticised for being expensive . . .

solution A
Solutions B and C Road pricing has many practical difficulties, while

and arguments against people are . . .
Conclusion in favour of There is little alternative to a road building

solution A programme . . .
Problem/Solution
Vocabulary
The following words can be used as synonyms for problem and solution.
three main difficulties have arisen . . .

the main challenge faced by nurses . . .
one of the concerns during the recession . . .
the new process created two questions . . .
the team faced six issues . . .
our principal worry/ dilemma was . . .
the best remedy for this may be . . .
two answers have been put forward . . .
another suggestion is . . .
Matheson’s proposal was finally accepted.
this was finally rectified by . . .
.
Additive
• adding information (joining alike – more of the same)
• EXAMPLES: and (can be overused), also, as well as,

besides, in addition, including, moreover, similarly, and then,
what is more, apart from this…
•Both proteins and vitamins are essential for small children.

•Not only proteins but also vitamins are essential for small
children.
•The film was neither well made nor well-performed.
•Apart from providing humanitarian aid, the UN is also supposed
to enforce agreements.
The Passive Voice
• The passive is used when the writer wants to focus on
the result, not on the cause
 The University was founded in 1994 by Dr.
Namwandi. (passive)
 Dr. Namwandi founded the University in 1994.
(active)
In the first sentence, the emphasis is on the University,
in the second on Dr. Namwandi. So the passive is often
used in written English when the cause (a person or
thing) is less important or unknown.
The Passive Voice
• Aluminium was first produced in the nineteenth
century.(by someone)
• The colony was abandoned in the 1630s. (due to
something)
• The cause of the action can be shown by adding
‘by ’: The city was flooded by a severe hurricane.
• The passive is also used in written work to provide
a more impersonal style: The findings were
evaluated. (not ‘I evaluated the findings’)
The Passive Voice
(Structure)
All passive structures have two parts:
Form of the verb to be Past participle

is constructed
was developed
will be re-organised
The Passive Voice
(Using adverbs)
• An adverb can be inserted in a passive form to
add information:
This process is commonly called ‘networking’.
The recession forced half the companies to go

out of business.
Half the companies were eventually forced to go
out of business by the recession.
The Passive Voice
Activity 1
Change the following into the passive.
a) We collected the data and compared the two groups.
b) I interviewed 120 people in three social classes.
c) They checked the results and found several errors.
d) We will make an analysis of the findings.
e) He asked four doctors to give their opinions.
f) She wrote the report and distributed ten copies.
The Passive Voice
Activity 2
Change the following sentences from active to passive and insert a
suitable adverb from the list on the next slide (more words than
sentences). Decide if it is necessary to show a cause.
a) The Connors family ran the company until 1981.
b) Dr Weber has predicted that prisons will be unnecessary in the future.
c) They provided pencils for all students in the exam.
d) The researchers calculated the percentages to three decimal places.
e) The students handed in the essays on Tuesday morning.
f) She researched the life cycle of over 15 types of mice.
The Passive Voice
Activity 2……
Optimistically, helpfully, punctually, accurately

Eventually ,vividly, carefully, profitably
The Passive Voice
Activity 3
In most texts the active and the passive are mixed. Read the following text and underline
the passive forms.
BOOTS
When John Boot died at 45, he was worn out by the effort of establishing his herbal medicine
business. He had spent his early years as a farm labourer but had worked his way up to be the
owner of a substantial business. He was born in 1815, became a member of a Methodist chapel
in Nottingham, and later moved to the city. John was concerned by the situation of the poor, who
could not afford a doctor, and in 1849 he opened a herbal medicine shop which was called the
British and American Botanic Establishment. In the early stages John was helped financially by
his father-in-law, while his mother provided herbal knowledge. On his death in 1860 the
business was taken over by his wife, and she was soon assisted by their 10-year-old son, Jesse.
He quickly showed the business ability which transformed his father’s shop into a national
business. Jesse opened more shops in poor districts of the city and pioneered advertising
methods. He also insisted on doing business in cash, rather than offering his customers credit.
Academic Vocabulary
• To read and write academic texts effectively
students need to be familiar with the rather formal
vocabulary widely used in this area.
• Many students are not exposed to academic or
professional vocabulary outside of University life
and therefore speak and write in a colloquial
(conversational) style, which can be too informal.
• Increasing your vocabulary will help you to
improve the quality of assignments.
Aspects of effective vocabulary study
1. Multi-meaning words
2. Word classes – nouns, verbs, adjectives and
adverbs
3. Word families and word parts
4. Collocations
1. Multi-meaning words
• They are words that have a number of different meanings in the
dictionary
• Only the context can clarify which meaning would be appropriate
E.g.
body:
• the physical structure, including the bones, flesh, and organs, of a
person or an animal.
• the main or central part of something, especially a building or text.
• an organized group of people with a common purpose or function. "a
regulatory body"
• a large amount or collection of something that has been collected, such
as knowledge, information, etc. "a rich body of Canadian folklore"
Activity
• Choose the correct meaning of the underlined
words according to the context in which they
appear.
1. The government gets a lot of revenue from

duty on tobacco products.
a. A moral or legal obligation
b. A task to do as part of your job
c. Tax you pay on goods you buy
Activity
appear.
2. The questions in the booklet can be answered in

any order.
a. The arrangement or sequence of a group of things
in relation to each other
b. A command given by a person in authority
c. A request for a product to be delivered to you
Activity
appear.
3. Fatigue is one of the most common causes of

road accidents.
a. Frequent
b. Belonging to or used by a group of people
c. Ordinary or usual
2. Word Classes – nouns, verbs, adjectives
and adverbs
• Knowing the word class for an individual
word will help you use it correctly in both
writing and speaking. Consider the text below.
• Educators have a multitude of explanations for why smaller

class sizes might be expected to improve academic
performance, although frequently the ideas are anecdotal.
– Source: Ehrenberg, Ronald G.; Brewer, Dominic J.; Gamoran, Adam; Willms,
J. Douglas (2001, November). Does class size matter? Scientific American,
285(5), 78-85.
and adverbs
• Here are some examples of word classes from
the text above:
• Nouns: educators, multitude, explanations,

class, sizes, performance
• Verbs: have, might, expect, improve, are
• Adjectives: smaller, academic, anectodat
• Adverbs: frequently
and adverbs
Read the text and complete the table below. Put the underlined
words un the correct column according to their word class.
and adverbs
NOUNS VERBS ADJECTIVES ADVERBS
and adverbs
• Sometimes, you can only identify word class
from the context:
Example:
• He studies hard for his exams.
• They work hard in their studies.
Adjectives, nouns and verbs
The table on the next slide shows examples of

some of the more common items.
Use a dictionary to check that you understand
them all.
Adjectives, nouns and verbs
Adjective Noun Verb
achievable achievement achieve
acquired acquisition acquire
analytical analysis analyse
contributory contribution/ contributor contribute
creative creation create
definitive definition define
derived derivation derive
distributive distribution/ distributor distribute
emphatic emphasis emphasise
evaluative evaluation evaluate
hypothetical hypothesis hypothesise
indicative indication/ indicator indicate
interpretative interpretation interpret
invested investment invest
predictive prediction/ predictor predict
reliable reliability rely
responsive response respond
significant significance signify
synthetic synthesis synthesise
variable variation/ variable vary
Activity
Using the table from the previous slide, choose the most suitable word ending in
each case.
a) In the 1950s nuclear power was pred________________ to be cheap and

clean.
b) A signif________________ number of students have chosen to do that project.
c) The rate of increase var________________ between 5 per cent And 8 per cent
during the 1990s.
d) The first computer was creat________________ during the second world war.
e) Researchers frequently need to ask hypoth________________ questions.
f) She invest________________ all her capital in the business.
g) The company puts emph________________ on the reliab________________
of its products.
h) The essays were evaluat________________ in terms of content and accuracy.
i) Nylon was one of the first syn________________ fabrics in common use.
j) Gandhi made a significant cont________________ to Indian history.
Activity
Complete each sentence with a suitable word from the previous table.
a) The experiment’s results were confusing; each researcher had her own
______________________________.
b) The word ‘algebra’ is ______________________________ from
Arabic.
c) They received the Nobel Prize for
their______________________________ in developing a new vaccine.
d) Dr Wagner published the ______________________________ work on
South Asian snakes last year.
e) Over 3,500 questionnaires were______________________________ in
terms of social class.
f) Three ______________________________ need to be considered when
forecasting an economic upturn.
Academic adjectives
The following adjectives are best understood and
learnt as opposites:
absolute relative
abstract concrete
logical illogical
metaphorical literal
precise vague or approximate or rough
rational irrational
relevant irrelevant
subjective objective
theoretical practical or empirical or pragmatic
Academic adjectives
Inflation is an abstract concept.

The metaphorical use of the word ‘key’ is
probably more common than its literal one.
The study of engineering is very relevant to
architecture.
Her study of women in education was criticised
for being too subjective.
In Europe, empirical research began in the
sixteenth century.
Activity
Complete each sentence with a suitable adjective from the table on Vocabulary
(Academic adjectives).
a) The teacher complained that the quotes

were____________________________ to the title.
b) His ____________________________ approach led him to ignore some
inconvenient facts.
c) ____________________________ examples are needed to make the
argument clear.
d) It is sufficient to give ________________________________ figures for
national populations.
e) Poverty is usually regarded as a ____________________________concept.
f) They approached the task in a ____________________________way by first
analysing the title.
g) The students preferred examining case studies
to____________________________ discussion.
Formality in verbs
Academic writing tends to use rather formal verbs to express the
writer’s meaning accurately:
 In the last decade the pace of change accelerated.
 Could Darwin have envisaged the controversy his work has
caused?
In spoken English we are more likely to use speed up and imagined.

Students wishing to develop their academic vocabulary should study
the Academic Word List (AWL). This is a list of 570 items commonly
found in academic texts across various disciplines, created by Averil
Coxhead. See Sandra Haywood’s website for information about the
AWL, with further practice exercises:
http://nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/
3. Word families
• A word family is the base form of a word plus
its inflected forms and derived forms made
from affixes (Hirsh & Nation 1992, p. 692).
• e.g. commentaries, commentary, commentator,
commentators, commented, commenting,
comments
3. Word families
Read the sentences below and note the different forms of the word reduce.
The noun reduction and the verb to reduce belong to the same word family.
3. Word families: suffixes
• In some cases, the ending of a word (suffixes) will be
an indicator of the word class that a terms belongs to.
• E.g. ~ion, ~ate, ~al, ~our, ~ive, ~ize, ~ly, ~ence, ~ity,
~ness.
– Restriction, development: nouns
– Developmental, parental: adjectives
– Developmentally: adverb
• NOTE: some suffixes provide meaning, in addition to
indicating word class. Painful and painless are both
adjectives of the noun pain, but have different
meanings.
3. Word families: prefixes
• Prefixes do not help us identify the word class,
but they might aid in understanding the
meaning of the word
• E.g. prerequisite, preconceive, prefix
– pre~ means ‘before’
• We can remove a prefix from a word and still
remain a prefix
• E.g. ir~: irrelevant (relevant), irrational
(rational)
4. Collocations
• Part of using a word properly is knowing what
other words you can use it with.
• Collocations are the way words combine in a
language to produce natural sounding speech
and writing.
– E.g. tall person, but high mountain
– This is strong coffee. (‘powerful coffee’ sounds
strange and incorrect to a native speaker, although
in terms of meaning, both versions send the same
message)
4. Collocations
Gain experience verb + noun
Unemployment goes up noun + verb
Interest rate noun + noun
Rise sharply verb + adverb
Choose between (two things) verb + prep.
Safe from (danger) adj. + prep.
In advance Prep. + noun
Activity
• Read the text and answer the questions that follow on the
next slide.
Activity
1. What verbs are used before the following nouns?
a) ____________ procedures
b) ____________ change
c) ____________ responses
d) ____________ stimuli
2. What adjectives are used with these nouns?

a) ____________ psychologists
b) ____________ procedures
c) ____________ infants
d) ____________ method
Common academic collocations
• Decisive action
• Acceptable behaviour
• Accurate assessment/information/measurement/record
• Alternative approach/method/means/solution/way/view
• Careful analysis/consideration/thought
• Causal link/relation
• Clear distinction/indication/relationship/structure
• Common approach/goal/source/theme/usage
• Complex interaction/issue/pattern/question/situation/system/account
• Comprehensive approach/account/overview/system
• Cover range/topic/area
• Direct access/communication/evidence/impact/link/relationship
• Early study
• Economic crisis/activity/factors/growth/interests/goals/power/stability
Extracted from Pearson’s list of academic collocations https://pearsonpte.com/wp-
content/uploads/2018/05/AcademicCollocationList_2018.pdf
Common academic collocations
• Ethical consideration/dilemma/principle/problem/question
• Extensive research
• external/internal factors/forces/influence/source/threat
• Factual information
• Fair treatment
• Final analysis/answer/chapter/decision/result/stage/step
• Foreign currency/investment/investor/policy
• Fundamental aspect/change/difference/principle/question
• Gather information/data
• Great accuracy/diversity/impact/majority/potential/significance
• High concentration/expectations/incidence/percentage
/probability/standard/quality/score
Extracted from Pearson’s list of academic collocations https://pearsonpte.com/wp-

content/uploads/2018/05/AcademicCollocationList_2018.pdf
ANAPHORIC
RESOLUTIONS
ANAPHORA
• Consider the following sentences:
(1) The monkey ate the banana because it was
hungry.
(2) The monkey ate the banana because it was ripe.
(3) The monkey ate the banana because it was tea-
time.
Which word does the pronoun it refer to in each
case?
ANAPHORA
• the linguistic phenomenon of pointing back to a previously
mentioned item in the text.
• a technique of using a word, such as a pronoun, to refer to or

replace another word in a sentence.
• It is the use of an expression whose interpretation depends

upon another expression and context, its antecedent/referent
• The anaphoric term is called an anaphor
• EXAMPLE: Sally arrived, but nobody saw her. (‘her’ is an

anaphor referring back to Sally)
ANAPHORA
• It indicates how discourse is constructed and
maintained
• It binds different syntactical elements together at
the level of the sentence
• It presents a challenge to natural language
processing and computational linguistics, since
the identification of the reference can be difficult
• It tells some things about how language is
understood and processed
ANAPHORA RESOLUTION
• is the process of resolving an anaphoric

expression to the expression it refers to.
Practice anaphora
Fill in the blanks with appropriate anaphoric words:
One group of commentators have little faith in the ability of
food availability to improve child nutrition. a)…………….
arguments are supported by the fact that two-thirds of
malnourished children live in countries with food supplies
adequate for b)………………… population’s needs. c)
……………point to problems of poverty and to non food
factors, such as children’s health and the quality of d)………..
care. e)………… belief is that both factors, but especially f)
…………… (which is increasing in many countries), play a
more significant part in malnutrition than is often admitted.
Adapted from Bailey (2003)

Practice anaphora
Fill in the blanks with appropriate anaphoric words:
One group of commentators have little faith in the ability of
food availability to improve child nutrition. a) Their
arguments are supported by the fact that two-thirds of
malnourished children live in countries with food supplies
adequate for b) their population’s needs. c)They point to
problems of poverty and to non food factors, such as
children’s health and the quality of d) their care. e) Their
belief is that both factors, but especially f) the former (which
is increasing in many countries), play a more significant part
in malnutrition than is often admitted.
Adapted from Bailey (2003)

Identify the anaphor for each word/phrase in the text below
and fill in the table accordingly.
Jenkins (1987) has researched the life cycle of new businesses.
He found that they have average life of only 4.7 years. This is
due to two main reasons: one economic and one social. The
former appears to be a lack of capital, the latter a failure to carry
out sufficient market research. Jenkins considers that together
these account for approximately 70% of business failures.
Antecedent Anaphor
Jenkins
new businesses
average life until 4.7 years
one economic
one social
The former… the latter
Identify the anaphor for each word/phrase in the
text below and fill in the table accordingly.
Jenkins (1987) has researched the life cycle of new businesses.
He found that they have average life of only 4.7 years. This is
due to two main reasons: one economic and one social. The
former appears to be a lack of capital, the latter a failure to carry
out sufficient market research. Jenkins considers that together
these account for approximately 70% of business failures.
Antecedent Anaphor
Jenkins He
new businesses They
average life until 4.7 years This
one economic The former
one social The latter
The former… the latter These
The antecedent
• The word, phrase, or clause that you replace
with a third person personal pronoun (he,
him, his, himself; she, her, hers, herself; it, its,
itself; they, them, their, theirs, themselves), a
demonstrative pronoun (this, that, these,
those), a relative pronoun (who, whom,
whose, that, which) or even an adverb (so,
there)
The antecedent - examples
• Willy said he likes chocolate. - Noun as antecedent
• My eccentric uncle likes chocolate. He tells everyone to buy him
chocolate. - Noun phrase as antecedent
• Larry was helpful, and so was Kim. - Adjective as antecedent
• He arrived in the afternoon, when nobody was home. - Prepositional
phrase as antecedent
• Our helpers did it very carefully, and we did it like that as well. - Adverb
phrase as antecedent
• Fred works hard, but Tom does not do the same. - Verb phrase as
antecedent
• Susan lies all the time, which everybody knows about. - Entire clause as
antecedent
• Our politicians have been pandering again. This demotivates the voters. -
Entire sentence as antecedent
CATAPHORA
• The opposite of anaphora;
• the use of a word or phrase that refers to or
stands for a later word or phrase;
• Example: Before her arrival, nobody saw
Sally. (The pronoun ‘her’ refers forward to the
postcedent Sally.)
The postcedent
a. When it is ready, I'll have a cup of coffee. - Noun as
postcedent
b. In her bed, my friend spends the entire morning. - Noun

phrase as postcedent
c. It bothered me that she did not call. - Clause as postcedent,

example of it-extraposition
d. Two violinists were there, at the party. - Prepositional

phrase as postcedent
e. Sam tries to work then, when it is raining. - Clause as

postcedent
Practice cataphora
Identify the postcedent and the cataphor in the following sentences:
• Too scared to buy before they sell, some homeowners aim for a
trade.
• "This, I now realize, was a very bad idea--suggesting we do

whatever Terry Crews wants for the day.”(Joel Stein, "Crews
Control." Time, September 22, 2014)
• It must have been tough on your mother, not having any children.
(Ginger Rogers in 42nd Street, 1933)
• "After she declared herself 'broken, betrayed, at bay, really low' in

another organ yesterday, I'm not sure the Diary should even
mention poor Bel Mooney's name.” (The Guardian, August 9,
1994)
Practice cataphora
Identify the postcedent and the cataphor in the following sentences:
• Too scared to buy before they sell, some homeowners aim for a
trade.
• "This, I now realize, was a very bad idea--suggesting we do

whatever Terry Crews wants for the day.”(Joel Stein, "Crews
Control." Time, September 22, 2014)
• It must have been tough on your mother, not having any

children. (Ginger Rogers in 42nd Street, 1933)
• "After she declared herself 'broken, betrayed, at bay, really low' in

another organ yesterday, I'm not sure the Diary should even
mention poor Bel Mooney's name.” (The Guardian, August 9,
1994)
BEWARE of unclear antecedents!
“If an incendiary bomb drops next to you, don’t loose your head.
Put it in a bucket and cover it with sand.” (An anti-raid British
leaflet during World War II)
President George Washington and his vice president, John

Adams, had a difficult relationship, which he wrote about in
letters to friends. (Who wrote? Washington or Adams?
President George Washington and his vice president, John Adams,

had a difficult relationship, which Adams wrote about in letters to
friends.
Vice President John Adams wrote in letters to friends about the

difficult relationship that he had with President George
Washington.
The boldfaced reference words in the two paragraphs below are either "anaphoric"
(referring upward to previously mentioned words) or "cataphoric" (referring downward
to subsequent words). State for each word or phrase is anaphoric or cataphoric.
For many years, East German people devised creative ways to sneak out of
1
East Germany. Some people dug tunnels; others tried crashing through
2
checkpoints with cars, trucks, or busses; still others flew out in small airplanes
3
or balloons. One woman tied herself to the bottom of a car and passed through
a checkpoint unnoticed. And one family sewed fake Russian uniforms
for themselves; then, they pretended to be Russian soldiers and simply drove
4
through a checkpoint. Some desperate people tried scrambling over a barbed-

wire fence or a wall. These people were often shot.
5
On 21 December 1972, the Basic Treaty was signed by East and West
Germany, and relations between the two countries started to improve. During
6
the next two decades, they began to cooperate with each other by sharing
7
cultural and commercial activities such as arts exchange programs and joint
8
business ventures. However, East Germans were still dissatisfied,

for their living
9 standard was lower than that of10 West
Germany. Their industries produced inferior goods, and their country was
11 12
polluted from inferior mining methods and careless industrial waste.

Academic Essay Writing Process
(Plagiarism Avoidance)
In the English-speaking academic world it is essential to use a wide
range of sources for your writing, and to acknowledge these sources
clearly.
What is plagiarism?
• Basically plagiarism means taking ideas or words from a source
without giving credit (acknowledgement) to the author.
• It is seen as a kind of theft, and is considered to be an academic crime.
• In academic work, ideas and words are seen as private property
belonging to the person who first thought or wrote them.
• Therefore it is important for all students, including international ones,
to understand the meaning of plagiarism and learn how to prevent it in
their work.
Plagiarism Avoidance
The main difficulty that students face is that they are expected:
 to show that they have read the principal experts on a subject –by
giving citations
 to explain these ideas in their own words and come to their own
original conclusions
There are several reasons why students must avoid plagiarism:
Copying the work of others will not help you develop your own
Understanding
 To show that you understand the rules of the academic community

 Plagiarism is easily detected by teachers and computer software
 It may lead to failing a course or even having to leave college
Acknowledging sources
If you borrow from or refer to the work of another person, you
must show that you have done this by providing the correct
acknowledgement. There are two ways to do this:
Summary and citation

Smith (2009) claims that the Academic writing is the tool for a
successful academic life.
Quotation and citation
According to Smith: “The point is not that the state is in retreat but
that it is developing new forms of power . . .” (Smith, 2009: 103).
These in-text citations are linked to a list of references at
the end of the main text, which includes the following
details:
• Author, Date,Title,Place of publication Publisher.
• Smith, M. (2009). Academic Writing. Basingstoke.
Palgrave Macmillan
The citation makes it clear to the reader that you have
read Smith and borrowed this idea from him. This
reference gives the reader the necessary information to
find the source if the reader needs more detail.
Degrees of plagiarism
Although plagiarism essentially means copying
somebody else’s work, it is not always easy to
define.
Working with a partner, consider the following
academic situations on the next slide and
decide if they are plagiarism.
Indicate “YES or NO” for each situation:
1. Copying a paragraph, but changing a few words and giving a citation.
2. Cutting and pasting a short article from a website, with no citation.
3. Taking two paragraphs from a classmate’s essay, without citation.
4. Taking a graph from a textbook, giving the source.
5. Taking a quotation from a source, giving a citation but not using quotation marks.
6. Using something that you think of as general knowledge, e.g. large areas of
rainforest have been cut down in recent years.
7. Using a paragraph from an essay you wrote and had marked the previous semester,
without citation.
8. Using the results of your own research, e.g. from a survey, without citation.
9. Discussing an essay topic with a group of classmates and using some of their ideas
in your own work.
10.Giving a citation for some information but mis-spelling the author’s name.
• This exercise shows that plagiarism can be accidental. For example, situation
(10), when the author’s name is misspelt, is technically plagiarism but really
carelessness.
• In situation (9) your teacher may have encouraged you to discuss the topic in
groups, and then write an essay on your own, in which case it would not be
plagiarism.
• Self-plagiarism is also theoretically possible, as in situation (7).
• It can be difficult to decide what is general or common knowledge (situation 6),
but you can always try asking colleagues.
• However, it is not a good excuse to say that you didn’t know the rules of
plagiarism, or that you didn’t have time to write in your own words.
• Nor is it adequate to say that the rules are different in your own country.
• In general, anything that is not common knowledge or your own ideas and
research (published or not) must be cited and referenced.
Avoiding plagiarism by summarising and paraphrasing.
Quotations should not be over-used, so you must learn to
paraphrase and summarise in order to include other writers’
ideas in your work. This will: demonstrate your
understanding of a text to your lecturers.
Paraphrasing involves re-writing a text so that the
language is substantially different while the content stays
the same.
Summarising means reducing the length of a text but
retaining the main points.
• Normally both skills are used at the same time,
as can be seen in the examples in the following
slides.
Read the following text and then compare the
five paragraphs that follows, which use ideas
and information from it. Decide which are
plagiarised and which are acceptable, and give
your reasons.
RAILWAY MANIAS
In 1830 there were a few dozen miles of railways in all the world – chiefly
consisting of the line from Liverpool to Manchester. By 1840 there were
over 4,500 miles, by 1850 over 23,500. Most of them were projected in a
few bursts of speculative frenzy known as the ‘railway manias’ of 1835–7
and especially in 1844–7; most of them were built in large part with
British capital, British iron, machines and know-how. These investment
booms appear irrational, because in fact few railways were much more
profitable to the investor than other forms of enterprise, most yielded quite
modest profits and many none at all: in 1855 the average interest on
capital sunk in the British railways was a mere 3.7 per cent.
(From The Age of Revolution by Eric Hobsbawm, 1995, p. 45)

a) Between 1830 and 1850 there was very rapid development in railway
construction worldwide. Two periods of especially feverish growth were
1835–7 and 1844–7. It is hard to understand the reason for this intense
activity, since railways were not particularly profitable investments and
some produced no return at all. (Hobsbawm, 1995: 45)
b) There were only a few dozen miles of railways in 1830, including the
Liverpool to Manchester line. But by 1840 there were over 4,500 miles
and over 23,500 by 1850. Most of them were built in large part with
British capital, British iron, machines and know-how, and most of them
were projected in a few bursts of speculative frenzy known as the ‘railway
manias’ of 1835–7 and especially in 1844–7. Because most yielded quite
modest profits and many none at all these investment booms appear
irrational. In fact few railways were much more profitable to the investor
than other forms of enterprise. (Hobsbawm, 1995: 45)
c) As Hobsbawm (1995) argues, nineteenth-century railway mania was partly
irrational: ‘because in fact few railways were much more profitable to the investor
than other forms of enterprise, most yielded quite modest profits and many none at all:
in 1855 the average interest on capital sunk in the British railways was a mere 3.7 per
cent.’ (Hobsbawm, 1995: 45)
d) Globally, railway networks increased dramatically from 1830 to 1850; the majority
in short periods of ‘mania’ (1835–7 and 1844–7). British technology and capital were
responsible for much of this growth, yet the returns on the investment were hardly any
better than comparable business opportunities. (Hobsbawm, 1895: 45)
e) The dramatic growth of railways between 1830 and 1850 was largely achieved
using British technology. However, it has been claimed that much of this development
was irrational because few railways were much more profitable to the investor than
other forms of enterprise; most yielded quite modest profits and many none at all.
Avoiding plagiarism by developing good study habits
Few students deliberately try to cheat by plagiarising, but some
develop poor study habits that result in the risk of plagiarism.
The list of positive habits.
Plan your work carefully so you don’t have to write the essay at the
last minute.
Take care to make notes in your own words, not copying from the
source.
Keep a record of all the sources you use (e.g. author, date, title, page
numbers, publisher).
Make sure your in-text citations are all included in the list of
references.
Note-taking
After finding a suitable source and identifying relevant
sections of text, the next step is to select the key points that
relate to your topic and make notes on them.
Finding relevant points

When preparing to write an essay you have to search for
information and ideas relevant to your subject. Therefore
the key points that you select must relate to that topic.
You are given an essay title:
“Does the state have a role in promoting public health?”
Note-taking
Effective note-making
Notes are for your personal use so you should create your own style.
a) You must use your own words and not copy phrases from the original to avoid the
risk of plagiarism. The quantity of notes you make depends on your task: you may
only need a few points, or a lot of detail.
b) Always record the source of your notes, to save time when you have to write the list
of references.
c) Notes are written quickly, so keep them simple. Do not write sentences. Leave out
articles (a/ the) and prepositions (of/ to).
d) If you write lists, it is important to have clear headings (underlined) and numbering
systems (a, b, c, or 1, 2, 3,) to organise the information. Do not crowd your notes.
e) Use symbols (+, >, = ) to save time.
f) Use abbreviations (e.g. = for example). You need to make up your own abbreviations
for your subject area. But do not abbreviate too much, or you may find your notes
hard to understand in the future!
Quoting
Using a quotation means bringing the original words of a writer
into your work. Quotations are effective in some situations, but
must not be overused.
They can be valuable:
When the original words express an idea in a distinctive way
When the original is more concise than your summary could
be
When the original version is well-known
All quotations should be introduced by a phrase that shows the
source, and also explains how this quotation fits into your
argument
Quoting
This view is widely shared; as Friedman stated:
“Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be
imposed without legislation” (1974: 93).
Introductory phrase
Author Reference
verb
Quotation
Citation
Quoting
a) Short quotations (2–3 lines) are shown by double quotation marks.
Quotations inside quotations (nested quotations) use single As James
remarked: “Martin’s concept of ‘internal space’ requires close analysis.”
b) Longer quotations are either indented (given a wider margin) or are
printed in smaller type. In this case quotations marks are not needed.
c) Page numbers should be given after the date.
d) Care must be taken to ensure that quotations are the exact words of the
original. If it is necessary to delete some words that are irrelevant, use
points . . . to show where the missing section was: “Few inventions . . .
have been as significant as the mobile phone.”
e) It may be necessary to insert a word or phrase into the quotation to
clarify a point. This can be done by using square brackets [ ]: “modern
ideas [of freedom] differ radically from those of the ancient world. . .”
Paraphrasing
• Paraphrasing means changing the wording of a
text so that it is significantly different from the
original source, without changing the meaning.
• Effective paraphrasing is a key academic skill
needed to avoid the risk of plagiarism:
• it demonstrates your understanding of a
source.
Paraphrasing
(The elements of effective paraphrasing)
• Paraphrasing and summarising are normally used together in essay
writing,
• but while summarising aims to reduce information to a suitable length,
• paraphrasing attempts to restate the relevant information. For
example, the following sentence:
There has been much debate about the reasons for the industrial
revolution happening in eighteenth century Britain, rather than in
France or Germany.
could be paraphrased:
Why the industrial revolution occurred in Britain in the eighteenth
century, instead of on the continent, has been the subject of considerable
discussion.
Paraphrasing
Note that an effective paraphrase usually:
• has a different structure to the original
• has mainly different vocabulary
• retains the same meaning
• keeps some phrases from the original that are
in common use e.g. ‘industrial revolution’ or
‘eighteenth century.
Paraphrasing
(Techniques for paraphrasing)
Changing vocabulary by using synonyms:
argues > claims/ eighteenth century > 1700s/ wages > labour costs/ economise >
saving
NB. Do not attempt to paraphrase every word, since some have no true synonym,
e.g. demand, economy, energy
Changing word class:

explanation (n.) > explain (v.) / mechanical (adj.) > mechanise (v.) / profitable (adj.)
> profitability (n.)
Changing word order:

…the best explanation for the British location of the industrial revolution is found
by studying demand factors.
> A focus on demand may help explain the UK origin of the industrial revolution.
Summarising
• Making oral summaries is a common activity, for
example when describing a film or a book.
• In academic writing it is a vital skill, allowing the
writer to condense lengthy sources into a concise form.
• Like most skills it becomes easier with practice.
• Summarising is a flexible tool.
• You can use it to give a one-sentence synopsis of an
article, or to provide much more detail, depending on
your writing needs.
Summarising
(Stages of summary writing)
• Read the original text carefully and check any new
or difficult vocabulary.
• Mark the key points by underlining or highlighting.
• Make notes of the key points, paraphrasing where
possible.
• Write the summary from your notes, re-organising
the structure if needed.
• Check the summary to ensure it is accurate and
nothing important has been changed or lost.
Referencing
• The APA system= American Psychological
Association.
• A system that allows you to acknowledge the
contributions and work of others in your
writing.
• If reference is not included in your written
work, you will be charged with “Plagiarism”
and your work can be failed.
Referencing (cont.)
• APA style requires references both in-text and
in a list of references.
REFERENCING
• PLAGIARISM - When you use somebody else's work and claim it is your own.
• Citations - Whether paraphrasing , quoting the author directly, or describing an
idea that influenced your work, you must credit the source. E.g. (Shilongo, 2011, p.
3).
• In – text Citations - An in-text citation acknowledges to the readers of your work
that you took the information from someone else. It briefly identifies the source and
allows readers to locate this source in your Reference List.
• Reference List – A Reference List consists of fuller bibliographic
information/details for all works cited in-text. It assists readers to identify, find and
access items. Each source is cited in-text must be included in the Reference List.
Must have first been cited in-text.
• Bibliography – Unlike the Reference List which only includes items cited in-text, a
Bibliography includes the details of works cited in –text as well as for works
merely consulted and /or recommended for further reading.
• Citation styles/ Referencing Styles - There are a number of styles used by various
disciplines, subjects, institutions and/ or departments. Such as the American
Psychological Association (APA), Harvard, MLA, Turabian etc.
o American Psychological Association . (2010). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
In-text citing/referencing
• Academic writing depends on the research and ideas of
others, so it is vital to show which sources you have
used in your work, in an acceptable manner.
Why use references?
• To show that you have read some of the authorities on
the subject, which will give added weight to your
writing.
• To allow the reader to find the source, if he/ she wishes
to examine the topic in more detail.
• To avoid plagiarism.
In-text citing/referencing
• It is important to refer correctly to the work of
other writers that you have used.
• You may present these sources as either a
summary/ paraphrase or as a quotation.
• In each case a citation is included to provide a
link to the list of references at the end of your
paper:
In-text citation or in-text-referencing
• Citing (verb) or providing a citation (noun) “is pointing
out to the reader where, exactly, in your assignment
you’re referring to a particular source” (Osmond, 2013,
p.110).
• So “if you refer to the ideas or research of another
within your paper, you acknowledge your source by
citing the author’s surname and date of publication”
(Moffett 2014, p. 183), and this is called in-text citation.
• So, in short, any borrowed information comes with a
citation.
In-text citation or in-text-referencing
Where is a citation placed

A citation is inserted at the beginning or at the
end of the borrowed piece of information- a
quote, paraphrased or summarised text.
While internet is an important research tool,

books are still more credible and trustworthy
(Ballfour, 2014)
Types of citation
Integral citations:
This form of citation is also known as author-prominent
citation as the focus is on the author and what he said.
Author-prominent citations often go with reporting verbs
and they are integrated into the grammar of the sentence.
Example:
Osmond (2013, p. 121) says that “there are many ways in
which we can use referencing as a technique, and not just
a ‘box’ we have to ‘tick’ to make sure we don’t lose marks
in an essay.”
Types of citation
Non-integral citations
This is sometimes referred to as information- prominent
citation because the focus is placed on the information being
cited and not on the author.
In this case the citation is not integrated into the cited
information, but it is written at the end of the cited information
inside brackets.
Example:
The analysis was done according to CL approaches using
AntConc (3.4.4w), a software toolkit developed by Professor
Lawrence Antony (Antony, 2014).
IN-TEX CITATION
The in-text citation is made up of two to three
elements.
• Author’s surname
• Date
• Page or paragraph number if available
RULES OF IN-TEXT CITATIONS
One author
• Author Mentioned in the signal phrase: When the author is
mentioned in the signal phrase, before the quotation, insert the
year, page number in brackets after the quotation.
• E.g. Titus stated that “Arranged marriages last longer than
unarranged ones”. (2013, p. 1).
• When the author surname is not mentioned in the signal

phrase, before the quotation, enter all three in-text elements.
E.g. (Titus, 2013, p.1).
TWO (2) AUTHORS
• When you take information from a source that has been
written by two authors, Insert both surnames in-text, in the
order in which they appear in the item you took information
from.
• If cited in brackets, separate the two names with an ampersand

(&). If the two surnames are written in your signal phrase
the word ‘and’ should be used. E.g.
o Titus and Ephraim (2013, p.1).
o (Titus & Ephraim, 2013, p.1).
3 – 5 Authors
• When you have information from an item written by 3 – 5 authors
FIRST CITATION: The first time you cite from this specific item with 3- 5
authors: list all the authors’ surnames in the order in which they appear in the
work.
o E.g. Titus, Ben and Ephraim (2001, p. 20)
o ( Titus, Ben & Ephraim, 2001, p. 20)
• NEXT CITATIONS: The second and subsequent times you cite from
the same item, use the surname of the first named author, followed by
‘et al’ (and others).
• E.g. Titus et al. (2001, p. 321)
• (Titus et al., 2001, p. 321)
SIX OR MORE (6+) AUTHORS
• Always cite the surname of the first named author
only, followed by “et al.”
• Titus et al. (2001, p. 201)

• (Titus et al., 2001, p. 201)
No Author
• When an author has no author or editor, enter the first few words of the
title . Omit initial articles such as ‘a’, ‘an’ , ‘the’ etc. e.g : Merchant of
Venice (1982, p. 43)
• You can also write the title of the whole item: eg a book, report,
brochure etc.
e.g. The Merchant of Venice (1982, p. 43)
• When citing the title of part of an item, e.g, an article in a journal, a
chapter in a book, a web page etc., in-text, place the title in title case and
double quotation marks, but not in italics
E.g . “Institutional Repositories” (2008)
Or
(“Institutional Repositories”, 2008)
• If the word ‘Anonymous’ is used in place of the author, treat this word as
the Author’s name, both in-text and in the Reference List e.g. Anonymous
(1991, p.567) or (Anonymous, 1991, p.567)
Authors/ Editors of Multiple Works
Multiple works, same author, different dates
• Enter the Surname plus the dates of publication in chronological order,
from the oldest to the newest; separate the dates with a comma
E.g. Cardian (2009, 2011) or (Martins, 2009, 2011)
Multiple works, same author, same date
• Use suffixes after the date, e.g. a, b, c both in-text and in the
corresponding Reference List citation
E.g Troy (2007, 2009a, 2012b) or (Troy, 2007,2009a, 2012b)
Multiple works, different authors
• If several articles say the same thing, cite the sources ( and their years of
publication) in brackets. Arrange the sources in Alphabetical order by
author, separated by a semi-colon.
E.g (Titus, 1997; Pop, 1879, 2000; Thomas, 2003)
Authors/ Editors of Multiple Works
Multiple works, different authors and same surname
• To distinguish between authors with the same surname, add their
first initials, even if the dates differ, Separate the citations with a
semi-colon
E.g (F. Thomas, 2009; T. Keller, 2011)
CORPORATE / GROUP AUTHORS
This category deals with material produced by organisations,
institutions, study groups, government agencies.
Copy the name as it is each time you write it, if the name is too
long , spell out the full name and use the abbreviation in the
following citations.
E.G Fist Citation: (International University of Management
[IUM], 2004)
Subsequent citations: (IUM, 2004)
NB: If the authors can’t be abbreviated, write tem in full.
Date element
• Always add the date of publication, put the year in brackets
preceded by the abbreviation p. (for one page) or pp. (for
multiple pages)
E.g p.45 or pp. 542-567
• If the date of publication is not known, use (n.d) in brackets e.g
Vincent (n.d)
• For re-published works, insert the original date followed by the
republished date, separated by a slash ‘’/ ’’
E.g Sam (1990/2000) or (Sam 1990/2000)
• If multi-volume works are published over a number of years,
cite the earliest date and then the latest date; and separate them
with a hyphen
E.g Sam (2004-2008)
Page Element
• Some items such as web items do not have page numbers. Use
paragraph numbers preceded by the abbreviation “para’’
e.g Gabriel (2003, para. 5) or (Gabriel, 2003, para. 5)
• For unnumbered pages or paragraphs- if the item has no page
or paragraph numbers, but has a short heading, use that
heading and the paragraph number that follows it in-text
e.g Jacob (2005, Introductory section, para. 6)
• When citing a long heading, in-text, shorten I and enclose it in
quotation marks and in brackets
e.g (David, 2001, “Theories of English as a Second Language,”
p. 4)
[Note: The full heading was: “ Theories of English as a Second
Language for educators and students”]
Quotations
• For all quotations, whether short or long, always cite: Surname,
Year, page number (s)
e.g Beukes & Carl (2001, p.76) or (Beukes &Carl, 2004, p. 76)
• Quotations must always be accurate, they must be exactly the
same as written in the source, and they must contain the same
spellings. If a quotation has an error, e.g spelling of a word use
[sic] in italics, within square brackets, immediately after the error
in the quotation
e.g The conference was attended by academcs [sic] from 8 African
countries.
NB: you are permitted to change the first letter of a quotation to upper
or lower case, the punctuation at the end to fit with your type of
sentence.
• If you omit words from a sentence, indicate this omission with
ellipsis. (...)
Quotations
• Long quotations which are usually over 40 words should
not be in quotation marks. Start them on a new line, in a
free-standing block. Double-space it and indent from the
left margin. E.g
The whole reason behind WIL is ensuring employability
of students. WIL should be curriculum-aligned in
every programme at Institutions of Higher Education.
Because assessment is very important in the
evaluation of WIL programme, through research it’s
evident that linguistics, semantics and metaphors in
particular plays an important role in WIL assessment.
(Pop & Batholmeus, 2011, p. 9)
Paraphrases
• NB..you need to credit your sources for paraphrases
although its not required, APA encourages page
numbers.
E.g Jackson (1996) or Jackson (1996, p. 56)
• APA advises writers to avoid using source that has been cited
within another source. However, they state that, if the
original source isn out of print or unavailable, the original
source should be named in the signal phrase (but not in the
Reference List), While the secondary source should be
named in brackets as well as in The Reference List.
E.G According Daniels (as cited in Scott, 1996, p. 67)
• Note: Scott will have a Reference List entry.
Rules for Reference List or Bibliography
• References are inserted at the end of the text, on a new page, separate from the rest
of the text.
• References at the end of your work should always be alphabetically arranged

( letter by letter) starting with the surname or the first word of a title that is not an
article (e.g. a, an, the)
• The heading “REFERENCES” or “BIBLIOGRAPHY” is typed at the top of the

page, in the centre. It is NOT underlined or put within quotation marks; References
are always double-spaced
• Reference List/REFERENCES use a HANGING INDENTATION, e.g. The second

and subsequent line for each reference is indented by half an inch from the left
margin. This helps to show clearly where each new citation begins. E.g.
Titus, M.S. (2001). Arranged marriages in underdeveloped countries in African.
Namibia: Zebra.
Reference list
A list of all the sources consulted during the process of writing your
assay.
The list has all the information you need to know about each source as
recommended by a referencing style such as APA.
Turnitin
Is a plagiarism-detecting website which is meant to help all academics in
trying to make their work as original as possible.
• Plagiarism is an act of stealing intellectual property. Neville (as cited
in Deane, 2010) defines it as follows:
• Plagiarism is the omission of acknowledgements when you borrow
ideas, images, statistics, or other data from sources, or the attempt to
present the intellectual property of another person as your own (p. 16).
Types of plagiarism
Unintentional plagiarism
• It refers to those writers who commit acts of
plagiarism unawares; due negligence or lack
of proper use of referencing skills.
Intentional plagiarism
It refers to those writers who go out of their way
to commit deliberate acts of plagiarism by trying
to cheat and steal other scholar’s ideas.
Penalty for plagiarism
• Unfortunately, the penalty for both forms of
plagiarism is the same.
• In most cases students are awarded a zero if
their assignment is suspected to have been
plagiarised.
• University have plagiarism policies in which
various forms of plagiarism are to be treated.
EXAMPLES OF REFERENCE
LIST/BIBLIOGRAPHY CITATIONS.
Book with author (s)
Surname, Initials. (year). Title of the book in italics. Place of publication:
Publisher.
Books with author(s) and editor(s)
Surname, Initials. (Year). Title of the book in italics and in sentence case.
(Initials Surname,Ed.), Place of publication: Publisher.
Electronic/Downloaded Books
Surname, Initials. (Year). Title of the book in italics and sentence case. Retrieved
from URL of home page.
Printed book chapters
Surname, Initials. (Year). Title of chapter in sentence case. In Initials Surname
(Ed.), Title of book in italics and in sentence case (--ed, Vol, page number
(s)). Place of Publication: Publisher.
Cont…….
Electronic book chapters
Surname, Initials. (Year). Title of chapter in sentence case. In Initials
Surname (Ed.), Title of book in italics and in sentence case (-- ed, Vol, page
number (s)). Retrieved from .
Journal Items
Article in a printed journal
Surname, Initials. (Year). Title of article in a sentence case. Journal Title
in italics and in title case, Volume number in italics (issue
number), inclusive pages.
Article in an electronic journal
Surname, Initials. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Title of Journal
in Italics abd Title case, Volume in italics (issue), pages.
Retrieved from URL of the home page.
Cont….
• Magazine articles
Printed Magazine article
Surname, Initials. (Year, Month/Season and Date). Title of article
in sentence case: subtitle in sentence case. Title of magazine
in Italics and in Title case, Volume in italics (issue), page/s.
Electronic/Downloadable Magazine article

Surname, Initials. (Year, Month/Season and Date). Title of article
in sentence case: subtitle in sentence case. Title of magazine
in Italics and in Title case, Volume in italics (issue).
Retrieved from URL of magazine home page.
Cont…
• Printed Newspapers
Surname, Initials. (Year, Month and Date). Title of article. Title of
Newspaper in Italics and in Title case, p. or pp.
• Letter to the editor of a printed newspaper
Surname, Initials. (Year, Month and Date). Heading of letter [Letter
to the editor]. Title of the Newspaper in italics, p. 3.
• Downloaded / Electronic newspaper items
• Article on electronic newspaper
Surname, Initials. (Year, Month and Date). Title of article in sentence
case: Subtitle in sentence case. Title of Newspaper in italics and
in Title Case. Retrieved from URL of newspaper home page
• Letter to the editor of an electronic newspaper
Surname, Initials. (Year, Month and Date). Heading of Letter [Letter
to the editor]. Title of Newspaper in Italics. Retrieved from
URL of newspaper home page
Documents/ Corporate publications
• Printed corporate documents (as an author)
Group/Corporate/Government body. (Year). Title of works in italics:
Subtitle (Document or Report No. xx) [Form]. Place of publication:
Publisher
• Printed corporate documents (as publisher)
Surname, Initials. (Year). Title of report in italics. Subtitle in italics and
sentence case (Document or report No. --). Place of Publication:
Government Agency, Department.
Electronic Corporate Documents with corporate or gov as author
Corporate or Government Body, Department. (Year). Title of work in
italics: Subtitle (Report No. xx). Retrieved from Agency name
website: URL
• E-documents with repository/corporate/gov body as publisher
Surname, Initials. (Year). Title of document in italics and in sentence case
(Document No. Xx). Retrieved from Agency or Institutional
Repository name website: URL
Published and Unpublished Research Papers
• Unpublished printed conference proceedings
Surname, Initials. (year, month). Title of the paper or contribution in
sentence case. In initials Surname (Chair), Title of symposium in
italics and in sentence case. Symposium conducted at the
meeting of or organisation Name, Location
• Unpublished printed paper or poster presented at conference
Surname, Initials. (year, Month). Title of the paper or poster in
italics and in sentence case. Paper or poster session presented
at the meeting of organisation Name, Location.
• Unpublished printed paper or poster presented at a meeting
and available online
Surname, Initials. (Year, Month). Title of symposium paper in italics
and in sentence case. Paper presented at e.g. The meeting of
organisation Name, Location. Retrieved from URL
Theses & Dissertations
• Printed Unpublished Thesis and dissertation
Surname, Initials. (Year). Title of thesis or dissertation (n in italics
(Unpublished masters' thesis or Unpublished Doctoral
dissertation). Name of Institution and Location.
• Electronic theses & Dissertations (ETD) – ETD from a
commercial database
Surname, Initials. (Year). Title of ETD in italics and in sentence
case: Subtitle ( Masters’s thesis OR Doctoral dissertation).
Available from Name of Database. (Accession or Order number)
• ETD from a university
Surname, Initials. (Year). Title of ETD in italics and sentence case:
Subtitle (Master’s thesis or Doctoral Dissertation, Name of
university, City and Country if from outside the USA). Retrieved
from URL
Lecture notes, presentations
• Printed notes, Presentations etc
Surname, Initials. (Years). Title in italics and sentence case: Subtitle
in italics and sentence case [Description of form e.g Lecture
notes or Handouts]. Location: Institutions, Department if given.
• Online Notes, Presentations

Surname, initials. (Year). Title in italics and sentence case: Subtitle
in italics and sentence case [Description of form]. Retrieved
from URL
Legal Documents/ Publications
• Printed Legal Documents – Printed Acts/Statues
In-text: Act (Year) or (Act, Year) E.G Protection Act (2001)
Reference: Name of act, Volume Source & Section number (Year).
• Printed copy of the Constitution
In-Text – Popular name of country constitution (Chapter NO.,
Article NO., Section)
Reference – Name of constitution of Country in italics (--ed.).
(Year). City: Publisher.
• Online Legal Publications – Online Acts/ Statues
Name of Act, Volume Source & section number (Year). Retrieved
from URL
• Online copy of constitution
Name of constitution of Country in italics (--ed.). (Year). Retrieved
from URL
Audio – Visual Materials
• Interviews should be in-text like all personal communications
E.G (Interviewee Initials Surname, personal communication,
Month Date, Year)
• DVD
Surname, Initials (Function). (Year). Title of DVD in italics and in
sentence case (--ed.) [Description of form e.g. DVD].
Place of publication: Publisher.
• Video
Surname, Initials or Corporate Body Name (Function). (Year,
Month Date). Title of video in italics and in sentence case:
Subtitle in italics and in sentence case[Description of form
e.g Video]. Location: Distributor
Television programmes
• Downloadable videos, DVD etc
Surname, Initials or Corporate Producer Name (Function). (year).
Title of video in italics and in sentence case: Subtitle in
italics and in sentence case [Description of form e.g DVD).
Available from URL
• Television programmes
Surname, Initials. (Statement of responsibility e.g Producer), &
Surname, Initials. (Statement of responsibility e.g
Director). (Year, Month Date). Title of broadcast in italics
and in sentence case [Description of from e.g. Television
broadcast]. Location: Broadcasting Company.
Web Items
• Whole websites
NB: Cite whole websites in-text only, e.g. Use the URL and do
not add a full stop at the end of it (http://www.ium.edu.na)
Surname, initials. Or Corporate Author Name. (Year). Title of
article in italics and in sentence case: Subtitle in italics and
sentence case. Retrieved from URL
Online communities – messages posted to : News/discussion
groups etc
Surname, Initials or Screen name if name is not given. (Year,
Month, date). RE: Title of the post in sentence case but
not in italics [Description of the item or form]. Retrieved from
URL
• Blog or video post
Name or Screen name Online nickname (Year, Month Date ). Title
of posting in sentence case but not in italics [Description of
form]. Retrieved from URL
• Wiki Items
Surname, Initials. Or corporate Author name. (Year). Title of
article in italics and in sentence case: Subtitle in italics
and sentence case. Retrieved Month Date, Year from URL
Social Network pages
Username or Group Name or title. (Year). In Facebook
[Description of page type or from]. Retrieved from URL.
• Use the abbreviation (n.d) when there is no date
• Use (ca.), the abbreviation or ‘circa’, meaning ‘approximate’,
before the date when the date is not given e.g (ca. 2011)
• For social network pages descriptions of form could include:
[Fan page]; [Group page]; [facebook update]; [twitter post] etc
Rules or referencing list
Heading and Spacing
 The heading “References” is typed at the top
of the page, in the center
 It is not underlined or put within quotation
marks
 References should be double spaced
Rules Cont.…
Indentation
 References Lists/References use a “hanging indentation”, i.e.
the second and subsequent line of each reference is indented
by half an inch (-/+ 12mm) from the left margin. This helps
to show clearly where each new citation begins: for example
Edwards , B.(2013).Rough guide to sustainability:
A design primer (3rd ed.).London, England:
Riba.
Henle ,J . M., & Garfield, J. L.(2011).Sweet reason: A field
to modern logic (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
Alphabetical Arrangement
• References are arranged alphabetically (letter by Letter)
starting with the surname of the first word of a title of a title
that is not an article (i.e. a, an, the)
e.g.
Amabile, T., & Kramer, S. (2011). The progress
principle. Watertown, MA: Harvard Business Review
Press.
Halpert, B. (2011). Auditing cloud computing: A
security and privacy guide. Hoboken, NJ:Wiley.
Meriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary (11th ed.). (2005).
Springfield, MA: Meriam-Webster.
Synthesising
• Synthesizing has to do with getting information
from more than one source (2 or 3) and then
combining the ideas in your own work.
• It is a form of summarising several sources
simultaneously.
• In order to synthesise, you need to combine
summaries from different sources which agree
on something.
• Like summarising, the synthesised sources do
not require page numbers on the reference e.g.
Studies (Thurlow, 2003; Ling, 2005; Elvis,
2009; Deumert & Masinyana, 2008) agree that
SMS has been studied broadly and SMS
language, for instance, has received attention
from scholars all over the world and its
characteristics are well documented.
ESSAY STRUCTURE
If we judge a book by its cover, What Makes
a Good Title?
Academic Essay Title Formulation
• Writers often struggle to create good titles for their essays.
• The following explains why a good essay title is important
and suggests some strategies for creating one:
❖ Why are titles important?
✓ Titles are important for your reader(s).
➢ Along with the introductory paragraph(s), a good title may
be one of the most important elements of an essay.
➢ A title contributes to the argument developed in the rest of
the essay.
➢ By identifying the topic, argument, and method of the
essay, a strong title begins the work of informing and/or
convincing readers.
Academic Essay Title Formulation
• In addition, a strong title indicates to your
instructor/marker that you have understood the question
and the concepts.
• One of the first things your instructor or marker will
look for is whether the assignment question has been
answered.
• A clear title assures the marker that the essay does
what was asked.
• Another function of the title is to capture readers’
attention and interest by giving them an idea of what
the essay is about, and what its main idea is.
……..
✓ Titles are also useful to the writer.

➢ The title is a “privileged” place in the text, because it
draws the reader's most complete attention.
➢ Take advantage of that fact. Use the title’s privileged
position to express your ideas clearly and to articulate
your argument.
➢ A title chosen early in the writing process can help
writers stay on track during the writing process.
➢ Alternatively, creating a title at the end of the writing
process can function as a check for the writer.
➢ If coming up with a title is difficult, it may indicate that
the essay’s main ideas or point is unclear.
…..
What does a great title look like?
• Titles for academic essays are often very long.
• Don’t be surprised if your title is two or more lines
long.
• Often, titles are split into two parts, the main title
and a subtitle, separated by a colon.
• The main title and sub title are usually a
combination of: Catchy Phrase, Quotation or
Clever Hook , Example: It’s a Frog’s Life
…..
• An Informative Phrase, Including Details about
the Content, Organization and Method(s) Used
in Your Writing or Research
• Example: A Description of the Habitat, Lifespan
and Breeding Patterns of the Namibian Tree Frog
• The two parts can be reversed depending on what
the writer wants to emphasize.
• Catchy phrase as main title :It's a Frog's Life: A
Description of the Habitat, Lifespan and Breeding
Pattern of the Namibian Tree Frog
……
• Catchy phrase as sub-title: A Description of
the Habitat, Lifespan and Breeding Patterns of
the Namibia Tree Frog: It’s a Frog’s Life.
How do I develop an appropriate title for my
essay?
• Write your essay : Most often, titles are written
at the end of the writing process, so the first
step in creating a great title is to write your
essay.
……..
• Consider your audience: Of course, you thought
about your intended audience before and while
writing your essay, but think about who will be
reading your work again when choosing a title.
• Think about what is most likely to appeal to them:
content? humour? Go back to the assignment
instructions and/or course outline.
• What style does your lecturer use? Can you match
it?
………
• Re-read the essay assignment instructions: Were there any
special instructions related to appropriate essay titles?
• Follow these instructions. Use words or phrases from the essay
question in your title.
• Certain key phrases related to methods occur time and time
again in essay assignments, and these phrases appear just as
often in essay titles: analyze, assess, compare/contrast, define,
describe, discuss, evaluate, illustrate, outline, relate,
summarize.
• Turn these verbs into nouns: An Analysis of, A Summary of …
• Does the essay assignment ask a question? Asking a question
in a title can be an effective way to spark the curiosity of
readers, but it’s usually a good idea to give the answer in your
title.
…….
• Re-read your essay :If a good title doesn’t suddenly come
to mind, write down your topic and key words from your
essay.
• These words reflect the main concept or ideas of the
whole essay.
• Join these words together in a sentence, or sentences.
Convert these sentences into shorter phrases.
• Re-work your title: Occasionally, a title will pop into your
mind fully formed, but most often, titles need to be
written, expanded, and edited several times.
• Make the title as informative as possible, even if it seems
long or wordy. Don’t hold back—reveal your conclusions.
Be direct and enthusiastic.
Introductory Paragraphs
“The beginning is the most important

part of the work.”
~Plato
Functions of an Introductory Paragraph
• Informs the reader what the issue is that the writer will be
discussing. The introduction tells what the essay is about.
• Presents background information that may be necessary to help

explain what the issue is
• Presents the writer’s main conclusion/THESIS
• Provides the reader with a road map of the essay so that they
know what to expect
– An outline of how your argument will go on
Not Included in an Introductory Paragraph
• No explanation of arguments! The introduction is not a place to
provide detailed explanations of your supporting details because
these explanations will occur in your body paragraphs.
• Do not tell your audience what you are going to do. “I am going to
tell you this…”
Basic Structure of an Introductory Paragraph
Lead/Hook . Introduce Claim

1. Introduce Claim 2 . Introduce
Claim 3 . Thesis.
Consider This Introduction
In my essay, I am going to tell you about the importance of an introductory
paragraph. My first reason introductory paragraphs are important is because they include
important information to guide the audience, such as main ideas and thesis. My second body
paragraph will tell you about how the introduction functions as the outline for the reader to
know where the writer is going with their ideas. Third, my final point is that introduction
paragraphs engage the audience by including a hook because without the hook the readers will
not be interested in the writing. These are the reasons why the introduction is important to
have.
Clear Thesis? Interesting lead? Outline of main ideas?

Consider This Introduction
According to many writing experts, the introductory paragraph is considered to be
the most difficult component of an essay to compose. Introductory paragraphs include vital
information to guide the reader. Additionally, the introduction works as an outline of the
writer’s argument. Another important role of the introductory paragraph is to include an
engaging hook to entice the audience to continue reading the composition. Therefore, writers
should craft strong, detailed introduction paragraphs because this paragraph is the seed from
which their writing will grow.

……
Now knowing what an introduction needs, lets
assemble our materials and apply these to our
introduction formula.
Lead/Hook sentence. + Sentence to Introduce Claim 1. +

Sentence to Introduce Claim + Sentence to Introduce Claim 3. +
Thesis statement
Remember: Lead Claims Thesis

Constructing an Introduction Paragraph
Directions: As you are introduced to each component of an Introductory Paragraph, label the
diagram below.
These sentences are included to introduce your topic
These pieces are combined to build your introduction. and supporting claims.
(Your Body Paragraph claims/ main ideas)
After completing the diagram with details to include in an introductory paragraph, good writers
check to ensure that their ___________________, _________________, and _____________ are all
related.
Are the G/ T/ and Th all connected to one another? Are they related?
Constructing an Introduction Paragraph
diagram below.
Lead/Grabber
Purpose: To capture Main Idea of Body
audience’s attention Paragraph 1
Topic/Subject
Main Idea of Body
Purpose: To introduce Paragraph 2
subject and supporting
details
Thesis Main Idea of Body
Purpose: To state Paragraph 3
argument
After completing the diagram with details to include in an introductory paragraph, good writers
check to ensure that their ___________________, _________________, and _____________ are all
related.
Are the G/ T/ and Th all connected to one another? Are they related?
Constructing an Introduction Paragraph for My Example Intro
diagram below.
Grabber: –Many writing

experts consider the MI1: Include vital
introduction paragraph to information to show
be a difficult component. writer’s message
Topic: – Introductory MI2: Outline of writer’s
paragraphs argument
Thesis: Writers should craft strong,
detailed introduction paragraphs MI3: Entices the audience
because this paragraph is the seed to continue reading
from which their writing will grow.
Note: The information presented next to the

After completing the diagram with details to include in an
yellow boxes is information that I already have in
introductory paragraph, good writers check to ensure that the
my draft. I only need to identify these sentences
grabber, topic, and thesis are all related.
and thesis statement, not create new ideas! My
lead/grabber statement is the only new
Are the G/ T/ and Th all connected to one another? component to create to complete my formula.
Are they related?
Constructing My Introduction
• Once I have completed my planning, I can piece my sentences
into my introduction paragraph formula.
• 1.) Lead/Hook sentence.
• 2.) Sentence to Introduce Claim 1.
• 5.) Thesis statement
– Your should/should not statement
Grabber: –Many writing experts MI1: Introductory paragraphs include
consider the introduction to be the vital information to show writer’s
most difficult component of an essay. message
Topic: – Introductory paragraphs

MI2: Introductory paragraphs outline of
writer’s argument
Thesis: Writers should craft strong, detailed

introduction paragraphs because this paragraph is MI3: Introductory paragraphs entice
the seed from which their writing will grow. the audience to continue reading.
According to many writing experts, the introductory paragraph is considered to be the most
difficult component of an essay to compose. Introductory paragraphs include vital information to guide the
reader. Additionally, the introduction works as an outline of the writer’s argument. Another important role
of the introductory paragraph is to include an engaging hook to entice the audience to continue reading
the composition.* Therefore, writers should craft strong, detailed introduction paragraphs because this
paragraph is the seed from which their writing will grow.
**Rather than introduce my Claim 2 and Claim 3 independently, I will combine the details together in a compound sentence when I revise
using the conjunction “and.” This new sentence still expresses my claims in order, but without sounding repetitive in my phrasing. See
my final introduction on the next slide.**
According to many writing experts, the introductory paragraph is
considered to be the most difficult component of an essay to compose.
Introductory paragraphs include vital information to guide the reader.
Additionally, the introduction works as an outline of the writer’s argument,
and includes an engaging hook to entice the audience to continue reading
the composition. Therefore, writers should craft strong, detailed
introduction paragraphs because this paragraph is the seed from which
their writing will grow.

Body paragraphs- Parts of a paragraph
• A paragraph consists of three parts:

✓The Topic sentence
✓Supporting sentences
✓The concluding sentence
Topic Sentence
• The topic sentence is usually the first sentence

of the paragraph.
• It states the main idea of the paragraph.
• A good topic sentence tells the reader exactly
what the rest of the paragraph will be about.
The supporting Sentences
• The supporting sentences are the middle
sentences of the paragraph.
• They provide details such as explanations or
examples that expand on or support the topic
sentence.
• Supporting sentences are sometimes
connected by transition words or phrases
The concluding sentence
• A concluding sentence is sometimes used in
longer paragraphs to sum up the ideas
presented.
• It expresses the same idea as the topic
sentence but in different words.
• It can start with a transition such as clearly or
in conclusion.
The Difference between Thesis Statements
and Topic Sentences
• The thesis statement tells the reader what the rest of the paper is
about.
• A thesis statement is a fact you want to prove or a fact you want to
explain.
• The rest of your paper’s job is to prove or explain what you just
wrote in your thesis statement.
• Example: There are several ways for college students to improve
their study habits.
✓ This thesis statement tells me a couple things:
1. The paper is about college students’ study habits.
2. The rest of the paper will show me ways to improve study habits.
➢ The thesis statement is the big idea of your whole paper! The rest of
the paper is facts about how your thesis statement is true.
The Difference between Thesis Statements
and Topic Sentences
Writing a topic sentence:
• The topic sentence is different from your thesis
statement.
• The thesis statement tells what the whole paper is
about.
• The topic sentence, however, shows only what
the paragraph it is attached to is about.
Let’s look at the following example:
…
• Your thesis statement was: “There are several ways for college
students to improve their study habits.”
• These are a few ideas of how college students can improve their
study:
1. Study in a quiet environment.
2. Pay attention in class.
3. Manage their time well.
• All three of these ideas could be discussed further, and they all
explain the thesis statement.
What are the ways students can improve their study habits?
✓ By studying in a quiet environment,
✓ paying attention in class,
✓ and managing their time well.
• Each of these three ideas can become a topic sentence.
• This means that for each idea, there will be a paragraph that
explains it.
…….
• Change each of the three ideas into a complete sentence
Example: “Study in a quiet environment” can become
“Studying in a quiet environment helps students improve their
study habits.”
Look at the following example:
“Studying in a quiet environment helps students improve their
study habits. For example, studying in a quiet place like a
library allows students to get away from distracting noises.
Also, students are able to think better when they can hear their
own thoughts. Students will do better in their classes if they
find a silent place to do their homework.”
………..
• The first sentence was the topic sentence.
• It told me what the paragraph was about, and the rest of
the sentences explained the topic sentence.
• Look at the following chart to see how the thesis
statement and topic sentences are connected:
✓ Thesis Statement (big idea)
✓ Topic Sentences explain the thesis statement. Each
begins a new paragraph and tells the reader what the
paragraph will be about. (smaller reasons)
✓ The sentences after the topic sentence in each paragraph
explain the topic sentence. (small details that support the
smaller reasons)
…..
Remember:
✓The thesis is the main idea of your paper written
in one sentence at the beginning of your paper.
✓The topic sentences begin each paragraph in the
body of the paper and explain why the thesis
statement is true.
✓ There is only one thesis statement.
✓ There is one topic sentence for each body
paragraph you write.
The CONCLUSION
A conclusion is the final review of the assignment.
• It should sum up the arguments of the whole text.
• It makes reference to the key terms of the assignment question.
• It reiterates and confirms your thesis statement.
• It may suggest recommendations, or indicate the significance or
implications that follow from the conclusion.
• There should be no new information in the conclusion and keep
references to an absolute minimum.
• If you have added something not mentioned in the body, check that it is
relevant; if so, include it as a paragraph in the body not the conclusion
• It should answer the essay question explicitly. It should summarize the
argument you’ve presented, and gather together the key points that
you’ve used to support it.
WRITING AN EFFECTIVE
CONCLUSION: SOME IDEAS
• ‘So what?’
• Why should your reader care about your argument?
• Show the broader implications
• What does this argument tell us about other examples of a similar kind?
How does one piece of study relate to wider questions in the same field?
• Come full circle
• Pick up something from your introduction. Maybe you’ve mentioned an
example, a situation or scenario; when you return to it in the conclusion,
show how your argument in the essay has transformed our understanding
of that example, situation or scenario.
WRITING AN EFFECTIVE
CONCLUSION: SOME IDEAS
• Synthesize
• Don’t just repeat the ideas in your essay. Show how they
all fit together.
• Be provocative
• End with a startling quotation, observation or
implication.
• Point the way forward
• Suggest a course of action, a new project, or further
questions that would repay study. should your reader
care about your argument?
EXAMPLE
Students face many challenges in their college years, and one of
those challenges is studying adequately for their classes.
Students who struggle finding time and energy to study may feel
like there is no solution to their problem. However, there are
several ways for college students to improve their study
habits. (thesis statement)
Studying in a quiet environment helps students improve

their study habits. (topic sentence 1) For example, studying in a
quiet place like a library allows students to get away from
distracting noises. Also, students are able to think better when
they can hear their own thoughts. Students will do better in their
classes if they find a silent place to do their homework
……
Paying attention in class helps students improve their study
habits. (topic sentence 2) When students are alert in the
classroom, they will remember the class lectures better than those
who did not listen attentively. Also, students who take good notes
in class will not have missing information when they are studying
for tests and quizzes. Successful students find that good studying
starts in the classroom.
Managing their time well helps students improve their study

habits. (topic sentence 3) Students who set a time aside each day
for study will give them enough time to get their homework
done. Students who choose to party every night rather than work
on assignments will not have a chance to meet deadlines.
Furthermore, students who use a planner to schedule their
homework time will have a better idea of what they need to do to
succeed.
……..
• In conclusion, many options are available to
students who truly want to develop better
study skills. Studying is not an easy activity,
and it takes planning, determination, and
attentiveness to study well. Fortunately,
students who apply themselves to these study
techniques will be happy with the results.
EDITING AND
PROOFREADING
Editing
Editing is what you begin doing as soon as you finish your first draft. You
reread your draft to see, for example, whether the paper is well-organized, the
transitions between paragraphs are smooth, and your evidence really backs up
your argument. You can edit on several levels:
• CONTENT (answered the assignment question; accurate claims; complete
argument, consistent claims, each point supported with adequate evidence;
is all of the information relevant to the overall writing goal?)
• OVERALL STRUCTURE (introduction, conclusion, each paragraph – one
idea, transitions between paragraphs)
• STRUCTURE WITHIN PARAGRAPHS (topic and supportive sentences)
• CLARITY (important terms that need to be defined, clear use of pronouns
– anaphora & cataphora, ideas expressed clearly, sentences complete)
• STYLE (appropriate style: formal, informal, persuasive etc., variation in
sentence length and structure)
• CITATIONS (in-text, the list of references, APA style)
Proofreading
• Proofreading is the final stage of the editing

process, focusing on surface errors such as
misspellings and mistakes in grammar and
punctuation. You should proofread only after you
have finished all of your other editing revisions.
• A great idea is to ask someone else to read your
essay and spot any spelling, grammar mistakes
as well as lack of clarity in content

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ACADEMIC WRITING

 How do you see that this is academic writing when

he / he / his / his / his / it / them / they / this

Higher rates of literacy a new government being formed

Constructing an airport reduced infant mortality

Last year’s national election greater demand for secondary

Installing speed cameras on increased demand for

Opening a new hospital in 2006 a fall in the number of fatal accidents

Club Revenue € m. 2007–8

HOW CAN ROAD CONGESTION BE REDUCED?

Solution A It is commonly suggested that

Arguments But not only is the cost of

Solutions B and C . . . other remedies, such as road

HOW CAN ROAD CONGESTION BE REDUCED?

Solution A It is commonly suggested that building more roads,

Arguments against This remedy is criticised for being expensive . . .

Solutions B and C Road pricing has many practical difficulties, while

Conclusion in favour of There is little alternative to a road building

three main difficulties have arisen . . .

• EXAMPLES: and (can be overused), also, as well as,

•Both proteins and vitamins are essential for small children.

Form of the verb to be Past participle

The recession forced half the companies to go

Optimistically, helpfully, punctually, accurately

1. The government gets a lot of revenue from

2. The questions in the booklet can be answered in

3. Fatigue is one of the most common causes of

• Educators have a multitude of explanations for why smaller

• Nouns: educators, multitude, explanations,

The table on the next slide shows examples of

a) In the 1950s nuclear power was pred________________ to be cheap and

Inflation is an abstract concept.

a) The teacher complained that the quotes

In spoken English we are more likely to use speed up and imagined.

2. What adjectives are used with these nouns?

Extracted from Pearson’s list of academic collocations https://pearsonpte.com/wp-

• a technique of using a word, such as a pronoun, to refer to or

• It is the use of an expression whose interpretation depends

• The anaphoric term is called an anaphor

• EXAMPLE: Sally arrived, but nobody saw her. (‘her’ is an

• is the process of resolving an anaphoric

Adapted from Bailey (2003)

Adapted from Bailey (2003)

b. In her bed, my friend spends the entire morning. - Noun

c. It bothered me that she did not call. - Clause as postcedent,

d. Two violinists were there, at the party. - Prepositional

e. Sam tries to work then, when it is raining. - Clause as

• "This, I now realize, was a very bad idea--suggesting we do

• "After she declared herself 'broken, betrayed, at bay, really low' in

• "This, I now realize, was a very bad idea--suggesting we do

• It must have been tough on your mother, not having any

• "After she declared herself 'broken, betrayed, at bay, really low' in

President George Washington and his vice president, John

President George Washington and his vice president, John Adams,

Vice President John Adams wrote in letters to friends about the

through a checkpoint. Some desperate people tried scrambling over a barbed-

business ventures. However, East Germans were still dissatisfied,

polluted from inferior mining methods and careless industrial waste.

 To show that you understand the rules of the academic community

Summary and citation

(From The Age of Revolution by Eric Hobsbawm, 1995, p. 45)

Finding relevant points

Changing word class:

Changing word order: