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1- Unit 14

U n it 1 4 Academic Style

Written English, like spoken English, may report, thesis, etc. In addition, academic
be formal or informal. The main features writing often contains references to other
of academic writing are as follows: it is writers' publications, sometimes including
formal in an impersonal or objective style quotations (this will be looked at in Units
(often using impersonal pronouns and 1 5 and 1 6 ) .
phrases and passive verb forms); cautious
language is frequently used in reporting It i s important t o remember that writing
research and making claims; vocabulary styles (formal and informal) should not be
appropriate for particular academic mixed: there should be uniformity and
contexts is used (this may involve specialist consistency. Besides this, the language
or technical words); the structure of the should be appropriate for the context. (See
writing will vary according to the the Structure and Vocabulary Aid at the
particular type (genre), for example, essay, end of this unit for more details. )

Stage 1 1 Compare these two expla nations o r defi n itions o f economics. What
I nform a l a n d Form a l a re the main d ifferences?

InformaVSpoken. Economics? Yes, well, . . . economics is, I

suppose, about people trying to . . . let me see . . . match things
that are scarce, you know, with things that they want, . . . oh, yes,
and how these efforts have an effect on each other . . . through
exchange, I suppose.
FormallWritten. Economics is the social science that studies how
people attempt to accommodate scarcity to their wants and how
these attempts interact through exchange.

2 The fol l owi ng sentences a re mixed formal a n d i nform a l . Write F

(forma l) or I (i nformal) in the brackets after each sentence.

a The project will be completed next year.

b I showed that his arguments did not hold water.
c I wonder why he put up with those terrible conditions
for so long.
d Five more tests will be necessary before the experiment
can be concluded.
e It is possible to consider the results from a different
viewpoint.
f It has been proved that the arguments so far are without
foundation.
g He'll have to do another five tests before he can stop.
the experiment.
h It isn't clear why such terrible conditions were tolerated
for so long.
There are a number of reasons why the questionnaire
should be revised.
We'll finish the job next year.

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3 The fol l owing sentences a re a l l i nform a l . Rewrite them in a forma l

style. (See the Structure and Voca bul a ry A i d a t the e n d o f this u n it.)

a She said it wasn't good enough.

b I thought the lecture was terribly difficult to follow.
c They've got to find out how to carry out a survey of old folks'
opinions of little kids.
d The results were a lot better than I expected.
e None of our other student friends knew the answer either.
f He said: 'It's hell being on your own.'

4 Cautious language is i mporta nt i n academic writi ng. Look at the

fol l owing sentences, which a l l conta i n defin ite statements. Rewrite
the sentences so that the statements a re more cautious. This will
involve changing the verb forms a n d/or adding a ppropriate
q u a l ifying adverbs, adjectives or nouns (see the Structure and
Voca bu l a ry Aid for U n it 10).

a A survey has shown that lecturers use the terms 'seminars' and
'tutorials' interchangeably.
b The rate of inflation will not increase this year.
c Reading is effective when it has a particular purpose.
d The answer to problems is found in asking the right questions.
e Countries disagree on the interpretation of democracy.

Stage 2 1 Look at these eight expla nations or defin itions of 'education',

D ifferent Sty l es written i n different styles.
- Decide if the explanations a re spoken or written .
- Match each one with the sou rce from which you th i n k it is
taken, l isted at the end.

What is education?
a Education can be seen either as a battl efiel d for va l u es or a
q uestion of systems or, more simp l y, as an extension of the
bio logica l fu nction of the upbringing of chi l d ren - known
more simply as parenting. We' l l start by l ooking at how far the
ro le of teacher goes beyond being a parent.
b The process by which you r mind develops through learning at
a schoo l , co l lege, or u niversity; the know l edge and ski l l s that
you gain from being taught.
c ' Education' comes from a Latin word . One of the important
things about ed ucation is to give people a n interest in
knowledge and an ability to l earn - or strategies or tech niques
for l ea rning - and a knowledge of how to find out about things
they want to know.
d Education: teaching, schooling, training, instructio n , tuition ,
tutel age, edification , tutoring, c u l tivation , upbri nging,
indoctrination, d ri l ling; l earning, lore, know l edge, information ,
eru dition . . .
e 'Tis Education forms the common mind,
J u st as the twig is bent, the tree's inclin'd .

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f Centra l to the concept of education is the devel opment of

knowledge and u nderstanding. In schoo l s and u niversities
explicit attempts a re made to do this by means of an
organised sequence of learning experiences which is ca l l ed
the cu rricu l u m . B ut what shou ld be its priorities? Shou l d the
depth of knowledge or breadth be the idea l ? . . .
g People going to school and learning.
h Education . . . has produ ced a vast pop u l ation able to read
but u n able to distinguish what is worth reading.

Sources:
1 Spoken - a simple explanation by an adult.
2 The Oxford Thesaurus (An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms),
Oxford University Press, 1 9 9 1
3 Longman Dictionary o f Contemporary English, 1 995
4 English Social History, G.M. Trevelyan, Longmans Green &
Co., 1 962
5 Spoken - a considered explanation by an educated adult.
6 Spoken - an introduction to a lecture on education.
7 The Philosophy of Education - Introduction by Prof. R.S.
Peters, Oxford University Press, 1 973
8 From a poem in 1 734 by Alexander Pope ( 1 68 8- 1 744) .

2 Now write you r own explanation o f 'education' i n a n academic

style.

3 Look at these eight expla nations or defi n itions of 'poverty'. Discuss

with another student the d isti nguishing featu res of the d ifferent
expla nations (spoken or written) and try to identify the type of
sou rce for each. G ive reasons for you r decisions.

What is Poverty?
a Th e situation or experience of being poor.
b It is the inability to attain a minimal standard of living. It can
be expressed either in abso l ute terms (tota l n u m bers living
below a certain per capita income leve l ) or rel ative terms
(compared with the average standard of living of the cou ntry
as a whole). First we wi l l consider abso l u te poverty.
c When poverty comes in at the door, love flies out of the
window.
d The situation faci ng those in society whose material needs are
l east satisfied. Poverty can be defined by some abso l u te
measu re . . . or in relative terms . . . I n either case it is
necessarily an arbitrarily defi ned concept.
e It mea ns not h av i n g enough to live on in terms of food and
shelter and the other basic necessities of life.
The poor o l d man is bad l y off; he's a l ways hard up and needs
everything he can get.
g The greatest of evi l s and the worst of crimes is poverty.
h The Socia l Su rveys of London, Liverpoo l and other towns
round about 1 929 showed that there remained perhaps ten
per cent of the u rban popu l ation bel ow the ' poverty line',
even outside the depressed areas.

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4 Now write your own explanation of 'poverty' in an academic style.

5 In a n academic style write a n explanation or defi n ition of one of

these:
democracy money lang uage
boredom crime deve lopment
happi ness death

Stage 3 The fol l owing passage is written i n a m ixed style with some
col loqu i a l isms and other i na ppropriate words. Rewrite it in an
I na p p ro p r i ate La n g u a g e
academic style with a ppropriate voca bul a ry. structu res and cautious
lang uage.

Causes of Writing Errors

Research has shown (james) that learners of Engl ish find
writing the most diffic u l t thing they've got to do. There are 3
main types of error that the l earner wi l l ma ke.
The biggest sort of error l eads to mis u ndersta n d i n g or a tota l
breakdown in com m u nication. There are l ots of causes of t h i s :
t h e biggest is t h e u s e o f transl ation from t h e mother tongue. B y
transl ating word for word t h e student u ses t h e wrong sentence
patterns (grammar) and the wrong words (vocab u l a ry). Another
cause is choosing to write long and complicated sentences
10 with far too many suppl ementary c l a u ses. The longer the
sentence the bigger is the chance of making mistakes and
fai ling to com m u nicate the meaning. Therefore, in the early
stages of you r writing, you shou l dn't write sentences longer
than 3 lines.

Structure and A Informal style

Vocabulary Aid In general, informal English contains a number of colloquialisms
(conversational expressions) that are inappropriate for formal
written English. It is important not to mix styles.
Written academic English will not normally contain the following:
- Contractions (i.e. it did not would be used instead of it didn't;
they have would be used and not they've) .
- Hesitation fillers (e.g. well, you know . ) which might be
. .

common in the spoken language are omitted.

- A number of phrasal or prepositional verbs are more suitable
for an informal style and are therefore inappropriate in
academic writing, e.g.
formal informal
conduct carry out
discover find out
investigate look into

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- Euphemisms (words which are thought to be less unpleasant

and less direct) are often used informally but should be
avoided in academic writing. For example:
direct euphemism
to die to pass away
to tell lies/to lie to tell falsehoodslfibs
ill poorly
old person senior citizen

Personal pronouns J, you, we tend not to be used in more formal

writing (except in letters, etc. ) . Instead the style may be more
impersonal. An introductory it or there may begin sentences or
even the impersonal pronoun one; passive verb tenses may also be
used.

B Academic style
Academic English frequently uses language that is cautious or
tentative. The language forms commonly used are listed in the
Structure and Vocabulary Aid for Unit 1 0 . The main forms
covered are:
Modal verbs (e.g may, might, will, would, can, could)
- Lexical verbs (e.g. seem, appear, suggest, indicate, assume,
believe)
- Modal adverbs (e.g. perhaps, probably, possibly, apparently)
- Modal adjectives (e.g. probable, possible, (un)certain)
- Modal nouns (e.g. assumption, claim, evidence, estimate,
possibility)

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