Academic Writing

Presentation - 11

Lt Col M. Javeed Khan (R)

Department of EDUCATION 1
Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology, Peshawar
 Course Outline

Detail of Course Outline1

Unit 3: The Mechanism of Style

• Italics
• Abbreviations
• Numbers

Department of EDUCATION 2
Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology, Peshawar
 Italics

• Italics is a style of type face in which the letters slant to the

right: This sentence is printed in italics.
• If you're writing something out in longhand, the equivalent
of italics would be underlining.
• Apart from the uses cited below for titles and naming
conventions, italics are used to give emphasis to words and
phrases in a sentence.
• For example, the question, "Are you going to wear that?"
takes on an entirely different meaning if you italicize the
last word: "Are you going to wear that?"

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 Italics

• Italics have two uses in English language.

i. Emphasis

ii. Title writing

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 Italics
Italicize the titles of complete works:
• Albums and CDs:  1989 by Taylor Swift
• Books:  To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Magazines and journals (print and online):  Sports Illustrated,
Slate, and Journal of Linguistics
• Movies:  The Martian
• Plays:  A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
• Software programs:  Microsoft PowerPoint 
• Television programs:  Doctor Who
• Video games:  Grand Theft Auto V
• Works of art:  Nighthawks by Edward Hopper
• Newspapers:  The New York Times

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 Italics

Italics

https://youtu.be/aqef1Wx4D6w?t=129

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 Abbreviation
s
What is an abbreviation?
• An abbreviation is a shortened form of a written word or phrase.
• Abbreviations may be used to save space and time, to avoid
repetition of long words and phrases, or simply to conform to
conventional usage.
• Some abbreviations are formed by omitting all but the first few
letters of a word; such abbreviations usually end in a
period: Oct. for October, univ. for university,
and cont. for continued.
• Other abbreviations are formed by omitting letters from the middle
of the word and usually also end in a
period: govt. for government, Dr. for Doctor, and atty. for attorney.
Abbreviations for the names of states in the U.S. are two capitalized
letters, e.g., AR for Arkansas, ME for Maine, and TX for Texas.
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 Abbreviation
s
What is an abbreviation?
• Acronyms are abbreviations formed from the initial letters of an
expanded phrase and usually do not include periods: PR for public
relations, CEO for chief executive officer, and BTW for by the way.
• Some acronyms are pronounced as words: FEMA for Federal
Emergency Management Agency, SUIT for Sarhad University of
Information Technology and NATO for North Atlantic Treaty
Organization.
• Although some people assert that all acronyms not pronounced as
words, such as EPA for Environmental Protection Agency, be
referred to as initialisms, the term acronym is in fact applied to
both.

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 Abbreviation
s
What's the difference between an abbreviation and an acronym?
• Some people are unsure of whether to call ASAP or appt
abbreviations or acronyms.
• Both abbreviation and acronym are used to refer to a shortened
form, but an acronym is a shortened form of a phrase and is usually
made up of the initial letters of that phrase.
• For example, NATO comes from “North Atlantic Treaty
Organization,” and ASAP comes from “as soon as possible.”
• Abbreviations, on the other hand, can be shortened forms of words
or phrases, and need not necessarily be made up of the initial
letters of either. 
• ASAP and appt (for appointment) are both considered
abbreviations, but only ASAP is an acronym.
• Acronyms are a type of abbreviation.
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 Abbreviation
s

Abbreviations

Definition of abbreviation.

1 : a shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the

whole word or phrase

• "Amt" is an abbreviation for "amount.".

• "USA" is an abbreviation of "United States of America."

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 Abbreviation
s

Abbreviations

https://youtu.be/onlXcyDeXYc?t=150

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Numbers
Writing Rules for Numbers
• There are some basic rules to follow when you express arithmetical
values in letters, essays, and reports.
• These rules on writing numbers will ensure you use numbers and
numerals in the correct way.
• The key importance for writers is deciding whether to insert a full
phrase or not.
• Thus, you could write it as one hundred thousand three hundred
and nine (for example).
• Or, should you use numerals and write it using digits - as in
100,309?

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Numbers
Writing Rules for Numbers
• The guiding rules for general writing suggest that you should almost
always use full words for small numbers from one to nine (not 1 to
9) and numerals for those over nine.
• As a rule, use written words if it can be expressed in two words or
less. But, remember that many will require a hyphen, such as
thirty-nine.
• One rule for writing numbers that seems to be universally agreed
upon is that you should never start a sentence with a number.
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Numbers
Writing Rules for Numbers
• The guiding rules for general writing suggest that you should almost
always use full words for small numbers from one to nine (not 1 to
9) and numerals for those over nine.
• As a rule, use written words if it can be expressed in two words or
less. But, remember that many will require a hyphen, such as
thirty-nine.
• One rule for writing numbers that seems to be universally agreed
upon is that you should never start a sentence with a number.
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Writing Rules for Numbers
1. Number versus numeral.
• First things first, what is the difference between a number and a
numeral?
• A number is an abstract concept while a numeral is a symbol used
to express that number.
• “Three,” “3” and “III” are all symbols used to express the same
number (or the concept of “threeness”).
• One could say that the difference between a number and its
numerals is like the difference between a person and her name.

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Writing Rules for Numbers
2. Spell small numbers out.
• The small numbers, such as whole numbers smaller than ten,
should be spelled out.
• That’s one rule you can count on.
• If you don’t spell numbers out it will look like you’re sending an
instant message, and you want to be more formal than that in your
writing.
3. No other standard rule:
• Experts don’t always agree on other rules.
• Some experts say that any one-word number should be written out.
• Two-word numbers should be expressed in figures. That is, they say
you should write out twelve or twenty. But not 24.
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4. Using the comma.
• In English, the comma is used as a thousands separator (and the
period as a decimal separator), to make large numbers easier to
read.
• So write the size of Alaska as 571,951 square miles instead of
571951 square miles.
• In Continental Europe the opposite is true, periods are used to
separate large numbers and the comma is used for decimals.
• Finally, the International Systems of Units (SI) recommends that a
space should be used to separate groups of three digits, and both
the comma and the period should be used only to denote
decimals, like $13 200,50 (the comma part is a mess… I know).

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5. Don’t start a sentence with a numeral.
• Make it “Fourscore and seven years ago,” not “4 score and 7 years
ago.”
• That means you might have to rewrite some sentences: “Fans
bought 400,000 copies the first day” instead of “400,000 copies
were sold the first day.”
6. Centuries and decades should be spelled out.
• Use the Eighties or nineteenth century.

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7. Percentages and recipes.
• With everyday writing and recipes you can use digits, like “4% of
the children” or “Add 2 cups of brown rice.”
• In formal writing, however, you should spell the percentage out
like “12 percent of the players” (or “twelve percent of the players,”
depending on your preference as explained in point three).

8. If the number is rounded or estimated, spell it out.

• Rounded numbers over a million are written as a numeral plus a
word.
• Use “About 400 million people speak Spanish natively,” instead of
“About 400,000,000 people speak Spanish natively.” 
• If you’re using the exact number, you’d write it out, of course.

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9. Two numbers next to each other.
• It can be confusing if you write “7 13-year-olds”, so write one of
them as a numeral, like “seven 13-year-olds”.
• Pick the number that has the fewest letters.

10. Ordinal numbers and consistency.

• Don’t say “He was my 1st true love,” but rather “He was my first
true love.”
• Be consistent within the same sentence.
• If my teacher has 23 beginning students, she also has 18 advanced
students, not eighteen advanced students.

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Writing Numbers in writing

https://youtu.be/PlvkCH3owas?t=13

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The End

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