ACADEMIC WRITING VS.

NON- ACADEMIC WRITING

 Features
of
Academic Texts
FORMALITY
 should avoid colloquial, trite and idiomatic words or
expressions.
Kind of like, as a matter of fact, I need to go to the John.

 choosing one verb form over two-word verbs.

damage instead of mess up
LET US TRY TO REWRITE THE FOLLOWING
STATEMENTS TO PRACTICE FORMALITY:

Writing can’t be done effectively if you don’t burn the

midnight oil.

Parenting is a 24/7 job.

 OBJECTIVITY
 Writing must be impersonal and maintain a certain
level of social distance

Objectivity can be achieved by:

1. Avoiding personal pronouns such as I, you and we.
 OBJECTIVITY
Objectivity can be achieved by:
1. Avoiding personal pronouns such as I, you and we.

You need to conduct the experiment

The researchers need to conduct the

experiment.
OBJECTIVITY
Objectivity can be achieved by:
2. Avoiding rhetorical questions as it marks closeness with the
reader, and constantly seeks his/her attention.

How can these problems be solved?

Certain measures must be discovered to solve the
problems
OBJECTIVITY
Objectivity can be achieved by:
3. Avoiding language that shows biases and lessens
objectivity.

The investigators were very shocked to see the outcome

of the tests.

The investigators did not expect the results.

LET US TRY TO REWRITE THE FOLLOWING
STATEMENTS TO PRACTICE OBJECTIVITY:

I believe that incidence of drug overdose has indeed

become prevalent nowadays. I think that they can no
longer bear the problem and that is why they get into
drugs.
EXPLICITNESS
it is the responsibility of the writer in English to make
it clear to the reader how the various parts of the text
are related

 appropriate use of signposts

EXPLICITNESS
EXAMPLE:

It is apparent that the government hopes to provide

assistance to the poor. However, giving dole outs to the
poorest of the poor does not work in the long term
SUPPLY THE MISSING SIGNPOSTS TO THE
FOLLOWING STATEMENTS TO PRACTICE
EXPLICITNESS:

MERALCO has been operating as a business

conglomerate involving foreign stakeholders and
independent power producers or IPP. __________,
MERALCO owns major IPPs operating in the region.
SUPPLY THE MISSING SIGNPOSTS TO THE
FOLLOWING STATEMENTS TO PRACTICE
EXPLICITNESS:

The Filipino masses are poor, __________ they are happy.

__________ these sentences are grammatically correct,

they do not possess sophistication of an academic writer.
 CAUTION
 requires care since knowledge is built from proven
theories and concepts.
 avoiding sweeping generalizations

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ARE CORRUPT.

CAUTION
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ARE CORRUPT.

Some government officials may be corrupt. (modal verbs)

Corruption is commonly linked to some key government officials.

(adverb)

A number of government officials tend to be linked with

corruption. (verb)
WHICH STATEMENT SHOWS CAUTION?

 The results contradict Meyer’s findings.

 The results appear to be different from Meyer’s

findings